THE STORY OF 



THE AMERICAN SAILOR 



IN ACTIVE SERVICE ON MERCHANT VESSEL 



AND MAN-OF-WAR 






v- 



by /-;}/ 
ELBRIDGE S BROOKS 

AUTHOR OF 

THE STORY OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN 




BOSTON 

D LOTHROP COMPANY 

FRANKLIN AND HAWLEY STREETS 






E^is^ 



Copyright, 1888 

BY 

D. Lothrop Company 



PREFACE. 



In all the mass of material devoted to the doings and the duties, the experi- 
ences, the adventures and the romance of the American sailor there is to be 
found no work that presents in consecutive narrative the progressive record 
of the seamen of America. 

Such a narrative this volume seeks to tell. Jack's story, however poorly 
told, possesses a certain interest that must enliven even the dullest tale, for 
the American sailor has made his name the synonym of daring, of endeavor 
and of achievement. His arm has been the stoutest in sea-fight ; his heart has 
proved the most undaunted in peril, the most faithful in time of stress, the 
most kindly in seasons of doubt, of trial and of disaster. 

With so much material from which to draw, the sailor's story, compressed 
within the limits of one brief volume, must necessarily be fragmentary. 
Details have been skipped and only the general phases of his development, 
his progress and his decline have been here set into something like orderly 
array. 

The glorification of any calling is not always its best defense. No class 
of the world's workers but has its negative side, none but has its phases of life 
and manners that are justly open to criticism, not one but may disclose the 
antagonistic elements of virtue and vice, of manliness and dishonor. No 
story is really a story that presents but one side. 

But in spite of every drawback the American sailor has a story well 
worth the telling. And if from the gleanings and gatherings here set down 
the reader can evolve a plain and consecutive narrative the author will feel 
that the months of labor and of research spent in studying and sifting 
this accumulation of matter will not have been in vain. He does sincerely 
hope that out of the story at least may come lessons of manliness, of 
effort, of bravery and of honest work that may not prove altogether valueless 



VI 



PREFACE. 



to the American reader whose very comfort and existence have been rendered 
possible by the energy and the achievements of the American sailor. 

In acknowledging the interest with which Mr. Bridgman has by his admira- 
ble designs entered into the spirit of the American sailor's story thanks and 
credit should also be given to the proprietor of the Cosmopolitan magazine who 
courteously placed at the service of the publishers the three illustrations that 
appear in the chapter devoted to American yachting, viz : the portrait of Mr. 
Burgess and the cuts of the Mayflower and the Volunteer. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Page. 
THE EARLIEST MARINERS ....... II 

CHAPTER II. 
NAVIGATORS AND EXPLORERS ....... 29 

CHAPTER III. 

COLONIAL SHIPS AND SAILORS 48 

CHAPTER IV. 

BUCCANEERS, SMUGGLERS AND PIRATES ......... 69 

CHAPTER V. 

COLONIAL SEA STRUGGLES .,..,, 89 

CHAPTER VI. 

IN THE REVOLUTION Ill 

CHAPTER VII. 

A RISING POWER 134 

CHAPTER VIII. 

"EIGHTEEN TWELVE" . . 1 56 

vii 



Vlll 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER IX. 

ON THE HIGH SEAS 1^9 

CHAPTER X. 

FISHING SMACK AND WHALER 202 

CHAPTER XL 

ARCTIC SERVICE AND INLAND WATERS . 22$ 

CHAPTER XII. 

BLUE JACKETS OF 'SIXTY-ONE 24/ 

CHAPTER XIII. 

THE GENTLEMAN SAILOR . 27 1 

CHAPTER XIV. 

FLOTSAM AND JETSAM 294 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Heaving the anchor on an American merchantman 

Initial T — The earliest mariner 

Barbaric shipbuilding 

The galley of the Cacique 

A canoe race . 

Initial T — A discoverer 

In search of Cathay 

The first sight of land 

Off Krossaness 

Alonzo Pinzon the pilot. (A type of the old navigators 

Initial J — Carving a figure head 

A Spanish galleon . 

A colonial elephant 

" The terrors of the Western Seas 

Sailors trading with the Indians 

Initial T — One of the buccaneers 

The home of the buccaneers . 

The curse of pirates 

The pirate of romance — but not of 

A smuggler 

Initial T — A three-decker 

On the way to Acadia 

" Oglethorpe fought his way through the enemy's fleet 

Before Louisburg . 

Initial S — John Paul Jones . 

Recruits for the privateer 

On board the Bonhomme Richard 

Help from France . 

Initial T— The Moor's-head flag 

Getting ready for sea 

Bainbn'dge's dramatic stroke . 

In Mediterranean waters 



fact 



L.J. Bridgman Frontis. 



L.J. 



L.J 



L.J. 



L.J. 



J 



L.J. 



Bridgman 



Bridgman 



Bridgman 



Bridgman 



Bridgman 



Bridgman 



L. J. Bridgman 



Page, 

II 

14 
19- 

24 
24 
32 
37 
41 
46 
4 S 

5i 

54- 

60 

65 

69 

7i 

77 

83 

86 

89 

93 

99 
106 
in 

"5 
121 

'3° 
r 34 
13S 
143 
*5* 



x LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Page. 

Initial A — " All hands ahoy!" , 156 

A stern chase .............. 190 

On board the Guerriere . ....... L. J. Bridgman . . 167 

In " eighteen twelve " . 173 

Initial O — In mid-ocean . 179 

Under full sail . 184 

On the high seas ....... L. /. Bridgman . . 191 

" Ship ahoy !"...........-.. 198 

Initial T — In the dory 202 

Codfishers hauling trawls .... 205 

A fight with a giant L. J. Bridgman . . 209-'" 

The heat of battle 214 

" For men must work and women must weep " . . Hovendai . . . . 219 

Initial Y — Heaving the log ... 225 

In Arctic Seas ... 229 

" Jim Bludso " ........ L. /. Bridgman . . 235 

On Inland waters (off the city of Erie) 241 

Initial E — The turret of the Monitor . 247 

Recruits for the navy : drilling the awkward squad . . .... 252 

Cushing's daring deed . . . . . . L. J. Bridgman . . 257 

The deck of the Hartford 265 

Initial W — " The Papoose *' 271 

The "gentleman sailor " ............ 273 

Edward Burgess (builder of the Puritan, Mayflower and Volunteer) .... 276 
(By courtesy of the Cosmopolitan Magazine.} 

Off Sandy Hook L.J Bridgman . 281 

The Mayflower 285 

(By courtesy of the CosmopjlUan Magazine.) 

The Volunteer 290 

(By courtesy of the Cosmopolitan Magazine.) 

Initial I — "Yarns" ... 294 

Through the Golden Gate .... 297 

A victory of peace L. J. Bridgman . . 305 

A " yarn " of the sea 310 



THE STORY OF 



THE AMERICAN SAILOR 



THE STORY OF 



THE AMERICAN SAILOR 



CHAPTER I. 



THE EARLIEST MARINERS. 




HE American sailor is the oldest of 
navigators. Agassiz declares that 
America was the " first-born among 
the continents — the first dryland 
lifted out of the waters, the first 
shore washed by the ocean that 
enveloped all the earth besides." 
The story of beginnings is a difficult 
- one to trace. But each fresh revelation of 
science throws new light upon the ways and manners of our 
predecessors of the long ago. Even before Europe was a 
completed continent America was an inhabited land ; and here, 
amid the crash of Nature's conflicting forces, a savage race of 
men, we are assured, struggled for existence, with the uncouth, 
gigantic, and now long-perished forms of animal life that roamed 
the Western world where for centuries the great lakes had 
been storing their volumes of water and through whose cen- 
tral valley for a hundred thousand years the Mississippi had 
poured its muddy torrent toward the southern seas. 



12 THE EARLIEST MARINERS. 

In just what distant age, however, of a prehistoric past the 
first American sailor launched upon river, lake or bay his 
clumsy log or frailer raft of bark is for the scientist and not 
the story-teller to discover. The problem is, as yet, far too 
misty and uncertain to suggest solution. But the beginnings 
of any craft or calling present an interesting field for study, 
while from the folk-lore of every land may be gleaned certain 
bits of fact that show how out of man's environment and 
man's most pressing needs come the slow but steady develop- 
ment of his inventiveness and ingenuity. In this peculiar 
domain America certainly is not lacking. 

In the ancient days, so runs the Passamaquoddy legend, 
Mitchi-hess, the partridge, was the canoe-builder for all the 
other birds. And he built them splendid boats : a great shell 
for Kichee-plagon, the eagle, and a tiny one, a canoe an inch 
long, for A-la-mussit, the humming-bird. And when they all 
went on a trial trip truly it was a brave sight to see, so that 
when Ish-me-gwess, the fish-hawk, who lived on the wing and 
needed no boat, beheld this beautiful squadron standing out to 
sea he flapped his wings in amazement and cried " A-kwe-den 
skon-je ! " — Ah, what a canoe is coming! 

But, so the legend declares, when this expert boat-builder, 
Mitchi-hess, the partridge, essayed to build a canoe for him- 
self he was so anxious to construct one that should be differ- 
ent from all others — a marvel ; yea, a wonder such as even 
birds' eyes had never beheld — that he, like many another 
ambitious inventor, overshot the mark and constructed a canoe 
that would not go at all. Then for very shame at his failure 
he gave up boat-building forever and flying far inland be- 
came a hermit, hiding under the bushes very close to the 
ground. And the birds, because the partridge had made such 



THE EARLIEST MARINERS. 13 

a failure of his latest invention, distrusted all his earlier ones 
and giving up their beautiful canoes never attempted to be 
sailors thereafter. 

Man, more persistent than the birds, was cast down by no 
failure and discouraged by no catastrophe. The unsteady log 
on which he sat astride and sought with hand or bough to 
paddle across the stream might, with a treacherous turn, roll 
him into the water ; the frail canoe of over-lapping bark or well- 
stretched skins might capsize or burst asunder, and still with 
the marvelous patience of those far-off days the shipwrecked 
sailor would simply try again. Indeed with the rude ingenuity 
of those ancient times, the naked, half-brutal savage who, cen- 
turies ago, was the first American, would doubtless avail himself 
of whatever would float to carry him across the stream, or out 
into his shallow fishing-grounds. We may even picture one 
such using the upturned carapax of the giant glyptodon or 
the fluted shell of the great Damariscotta oyster as ferry-boat 
or fishing-craft upon some sluggish Louisiana bayou or some 
clear-flowing Maine river. 

Gradually, as necessity suggested invention, the uncouth 
cave-dweller began with frequent burnings and much laborious 
digging with his rough stone tools, to hollow out the handiest 
logs into the rude semblance of a boat. Within this, when 
completed, he could sit and ply his equally crude paddle of well- 
scraped wood, floating himself and his companions over the 
waters that hemmed in his forest home. We know, from the 
researches of the archaeologist, that the advancing intelligence 
of the more prolific mound builders connected their fortified 
towns that hint at a possible civilization with broad and well- 
made canals, and that along these water-ways the growing com- 
merce of thoSe misty days floated in log canoes — the earliest 



14 



THE EARLIEST MARINERS. 



• 






forerunner of those American merchantmen that in the later 
days of white civilization carried the products of American 
industry into every corner of the world. 

The ceaseless assaults of savage and ferocious foemen de- 
stroyed these far-spread communities, scattered their peoples and 
laid waste their fortifications and their fields, but to-day, from 
the Ohio to the Mississippi may be seen traces of the great 

mounds which formed 
the basis of their busy 
cities, and remnants of 
the long canals that 
bore their simple com- 
merce. Following them 
the communities of 
pueblo builders and 
cliff dwellers flourished 
and fell, but even when 
at last the land that 
had known these dead 
civilizations held only the roving red-man as occupant and 
owner, the hollowed log and the swifter bark canoe that those 
earlier peoples had so cunningly devised, still remained as the 
sole water craft of the American sailor. 

The simplest forms may be variously developed. The float- 
ino- loe, as it save to the primeval savaoe the first idea of 
navigation, has ever remained the basic form as to length" and 
breadth out of which the art of ship-building has grown. Dr. 
Warre has given us the stages of evolution : the floating log — 
the raft of logs joined with brush wood or bundles of reeds 
— the hollowed log, or dug-out — the canoes of bark, or of 
stretched or inflated skins — the canoe or boat of strips of 




BARBARIC SHIPBUILDING. 



THE EARLIEST MARINERS. 15 

wood, fastened together with sinews, or thongs, or fibres of veg- 
etable growth — the vessel formed of planks stitched or bolted 
together with inserted ribs — the vessel planked upon an original 
framework of stout wooden ribs — and finally the elaborate 
iron shell that supplies the iron steamships or ponderous war- 
ships of this latest day. 

The earliest American sailors were in the first stages of this 
evolution — the era of dug-outs and bark canoes. With the 
exception, perhaps, of the oblong, skin-covered boats of the 
mysterious Mandans, alike canoe and war-boat, balsa and kayak 
showed in their construction the original idea of the floating 
log which had first conveyed the earliest Americans over some 
deep and treacherous river. The size and method of construc- 
tion might differ, but the original idea as well as the present 
necessity were ever the same. 

The bark canoe appears to have been the invention of the 
northern tribes who lived in the region of the Betula Papyracea, 
or paper birch — that tough-barked tree which is so durable 
that while the wood of the fallen tree may rot entirely away 
the outer covering of bark will remain strong and solid. This 
sort of boat which has been accepted as essentially and uni- 
versally Indian, was in reality confined to the tribes between 
the Ohio and the Saskatchewan, for while the aboriginal sailors 
of the far north had their light skin-boat, or kayaks, and their 
hundred-foot wooden war-canoes, the tribes of the south had 
their log dug-outs and their skin balsas. To both these the 
birchen canoe was unknown. " The Illinois," says Father Mar- 
quette, " greatly admired our little canoes, never having seen 
the like before." 

We all remember how delightfully Longfellow's flowing verse 
describes the canoe-building; of his mythical hero Hiawatha : — 



1 6 THE EARLIEST MARINERS. 

" Give me of your bark, O Birch-tree ! 
Of your yellow bark, O Birch-tree ! 
Growing by the rushing river, 
Tall and stately in the valley ! 
I a light canoe will build me, 
Build a swift Cheemaun for sailing, 
That shall float upon the river, 
Like the yellow leaf in Autumn, 
Like a yellow water-lily ! " 



With his knife the tree he girdled ; 
Just beneath its lowest branches, 
Just above the roots, he cut it, 
Till the sap came oozing outward ; 
Down the trunk, from top to bottom, 
Sheer he cleft the bark asunder, 
With a wooden wedge he raised it, 
Stripped it from the trunk unbroken." 



Then he asked from the Cedar its boughs, from the Tama- 
rack the fibres of its toughest roots, from the Fir-tree its balsam 
and its resin, and from Kagh, the Hedgehog, his " shining 
quills, like arrows." And with these he made the framework 
of his canoe, — 

" Like two bows he formed and shaped them, 
Like two bended bows together. 

Then he sewed the bark together with the fibres of the tama- 
rack, " bound it closely to the framework," closed the seams with 
the resin of the fir-tree, and wrought the quills of the hedge- 
hog into his bonny boat to adorn and beautify it : — 

" Into his canoe he wrought them, 
Round its waist a shining girdle, 
Round its bows a gleaming necklace, 
On its breast two stars resplendent." 

At last his canoe was ready for launching. 



THE EARLIEST MARINERS. 17 

" Thus the Birch Canoe was builded 
In the valley, by the river, 
In the bosom of the forest; 
' And the forest's life was in it, 
All its mystery and its magic, 
All the lightness of the birch-tree, 
All the toughness of the cedar, 
All the larch's supple sinews ; 
And it floated on the river 
Like a yellow leaf in Autumn, 
Like a yellow water-lily. 

And thus sailed my Hiawatha 
Down the rushing Ta-qua-me-naw, 
Sailed through all its bends and windings, 
Sailed through all its deeps and shallows, 
In and out among its islands, 
Cleared its bed of root and sand-bar, 
Made its passage safe and certain, 
Made' a pathway for the people 
From its springs among the mountains, 
To the waters of Pau-wa-ting 
To the bay of Ta-qua-me-naw." 

How nearly this poetical description of the building of a 
canoe accords with the reality may be seen by comparing it 
with Mr. McKenney's equally graphic description of the 
manner in which O-ku-na-ku-quid the Ojibway constructed his 
canoe near these very waters of Pau-wa-ting which Hiawatha 
navigated and which we know as the Sault Sainte Marie. 

" The ground being: laid off in length and breadth, answer- 
ing to the size of the canoe (thirty-six feet long and five wide)," 
says Mr. McKenney, " stakes are driven at the two extremes, 
and thence, on either side, answering in their position, to the 
form of a canoe. Pieces of bark are then sewn together with 
wattap (the root of the red cedar or fir), and placed between 
those stakes, from one end to the other, and made fast to them. 



1 8 THE EARLIEST MARINERS. 

The bark thus arranged hangs loose, and in folds, resembling 
in general appearance, though without their regularity, the 
covers of a book, with its back downwards, the edges being up, 
and the leaves out. Cross pieces are then put in. These press 
out the rim, and give the upper edges the form of the canoe. 
Upon these ribs, and along their whole extent, large stones are 
placed. The ribs having been previously well soaked, they bear 
the pressure of these stones till they become dry. Passing 
around the bottom, and up the sides of the canoe to the rim, 
they resemble hooks cut in two, or half circles. The upper 
parts furnish mortising places for the rim; around and over 
which, and through the bark, the wattap is wrapped. The 
stakes are then removed, the seams gummed, and the fabric is 
lifted into the water, where it floats like a feather." 

But, though the bark canoe became eventually the Indian 
waterman's especial craft, other forms of the primitive dug-out 
long remained in favor among these earliest American sailors. 
In his fourth voyage Columbus encountered, off the Hon- 
duras coast, a capacious native sailing vessel * equipped with 
sails, awnings and crude steering gear. The Indian chiefs or 
" caciques " of the Mississippi embarked their followers on 
huge wooden boats " neatly made and very large," says Herrera, 
"and with their pavilions and standards looking like a large 
galley," and even to this day the Aleuts of Alaska and other of 
the far northwestern tribes make use of monster war-boats hol- 
lowed from the logs of the giant trees of that land of forests. 

* " When the Adelantado was on shore," says Irving, "he beheld a great canoe arriving, as from a distant and 
important voyage. He was struck with its magnitude and contents. It was eight feet wide and as long as a galley, 
though formed of the trui.k of a single tree. In the centre was a kind of awning or cabin of palm leaves, after the 
manner of those in the gondolas of Venice, and sufficiently close to exclude both sun and rain. Under this sat a 
cacique with his wives and children. Twenty-five Indians rowed the canoe, and it was filled with all kinds of arti- 
cles of the manufacture and natural products of the adjacent countries." Another account of this American mer- 
chantman speaks of its being supplied with sails of palm fibres and a rude rudder. 



THE EARLIEST MARINERS. 21 

The American Indians lived under the spell of superstition. 
They feared the elements and those forces of nature that they 
could not fathom or explain, and their dread of the water which 
could so easily devour them was not the least among these 
fears. They never ventured far upon it. They were " near- 
shore " sailors, and whether afloat for fishing, war or commerce 
, they hugged the land and had little desire for discovery or 
adventure. 

The fear of shipwreck was an ever present one. It tinges 
their legends and finds place in many a myth. The Thlinket 
legends of Alaska tell that once upon a time, ages ago, dark- 
ness fell upon the earth and it rained so hard that " it was as if 
the sea fell from the sky." The terrified natives rushed hither 
and thither until finally constructing a raft of cedar logs they 
sought to sail away from the tempest. But the mad waves beat 
so fiercely upon the raft that it was broken in two. Torn apart 
by the waters the voyagers never met again. But one section 
of the company thrown ashore upon Mount Edgecumbe, the 
great mountain that overshadows Sitka harbor, became the 
ancestors of the Thlinket race, while the other half carried 
southward became the parents of all the other nations. The 
" seven mythical strangers " (the Hoh-gates) of whom the 
California legends tell, living at Point St. George near San 
Francisco, essayed one day to harpoon a gigantic seal. But 
the wounded seal, flying seaward, dragged the boat towards the 
fathomless abysses " where dwells eternal cold." Suddenly the 
rope parted, the seal disappeared and the canoe was flung into 
the air so high that the Hoh-gates never fell to earth again, but 
remained in the sky changed into brilliant stars. 

Thouo-h fearino- the sea the Indian sailors were full of stories 
of the braverv of such of their race as did fearlessly brave its 



22 THE EARLIEST MARINERS. 

terrors. " Let us go on the sea in a canoe and catch whales by 
torchlight," said the Algonquin giant Kit-poo-sea-gun-ow to 
Gloo-skap the Mic-mac hero. And Gloo-skap, who was a mighty 
fisherman, consented. Now when they came to the beach, says 
the legend, there were only great rocks lying here and there ; 
but Kit-poo-sea-gun-ow, lifting the largest of these, put it on 
his head and it became a canoe, and picking up another, it 
turned to a paddle, while a long splinter which he split from a 
ledge seemed to be a spear. Then Gloo-skap asked, " Who 
shall sit in the stern and paddle, and who will take the spear? " 
Kit-poo-sea-gun-ow said, " That last will I." So Gloo-skap pad- 
dled, and soon the canoe passed over a mighty whale; in all 
the great sea there was not his like; but he who held the spear 
sent it like a thunderbolt down into the waters, and as the 
handle rose to sight he snatched it up, and the great fish was 
caught. And as Kit-poo-sea-gun-ow whirled it on high, the 
whale, roaring, touched the clouds. Then taking him from 
the point, the fisher tossed him into the bark as if he had been 
a trout. And the giants laughed ; the sound of their laughter 
was heard all over the land of the Wa-ban-aki. And being at 
home, the host took a stone knife and split the whale, and threw 
one half to the guest Gloo-skap, and they roasted each his piece 
on the fire and ate it.* 

Naval battles among the early American sailors were seldom 
attempted. The Indian rarely fought "in the open." His con- 
flict was one of ambuscade and stratagem, and he preferred the 
solid earth to the shifting surface of the water, and the shelter 
of tree and rock and underbrush to the exposed insecurity of 
the shallow canoe. 

One naval battle between hostile tribes is however on record 

* Told in Charles G. Leland's "Algonquin Legends." 



THE EARLIEST MARINERS. 



2 3 



and displays the water tactics of these unskillful men-o'-wars- 
men. Those bitter foemen the Ojibways and the Foxes were 
at strife. Four hundred Fox warriors floating down the Onta- 
nagun River in their bark canoes skirted the Lake Superior 
coast until they reached the island of La Pointe off the present 
town of Bayfield, in Northwestern Wisconsin. Here they sur- 
prised and captured four young women of an Ojibway village 
and making off under cover of a fog were so unwise as to vent 
their exultation within sound of the Ojibway town with derisive 
whoops and a stirring scalp-song. At once the Ojibway lodges 
were in an uproar. The aroused warriors pushed their large 
lake canoes from shore, and leaping into them silently pursued 
their foemen under cover of the fog. Twenty-two miles to the 
eastward of La Pointe along the rocky Wisconsin shore the 
Montreal River runs into the lake. Here, the Ojibways knew, 
the steep and slippery banks would give no foothold to the 
escaping Foxes, and they waited for the attack until they had 
overtaken the marauders at this point. Then, with a sudden 
onset, they paddled their heavier canoes straight into the Fox 
fleet upsetting the frailer boats. Leaping into the shallowing 
water Fox and Ojibway struggled in a hand-to-hand fight until 
the four hundred braves of the Fox war-party taken at such a 
disadvantage were all either drowned or killed. 

Even in this lake fight it will be seen the Ojibways used the 
fog for their customary land tactics of ambuscade, while the 
frail and cranky river canoes of the inland Foxes could offer 
no resistance to the heavier lake-boats of the Ojibways, made 
to withstand the storms of Lake Superior, although both classes 
of canoe were constructed of the same pliant birch bark. 

One other water combat deserves mention here. It was 
during the days of the earliest clashing of the two opposing 



24 THE EARLIEST MARINERS. 

races, the white man and the red. De Soto's glittering expedi- 
tion for discovery and conquest had come to naught, and the 
intrepid but brutal leader slept in his unknown grave beneath 
the muddy waters of the broad Mississippi. The remnant of 
his ill-fated followers, a defeated and disappointed band, were 
flying for their lives, three hundred and fifty tattered fugitives, 




A CANOE RACE. 



all that remained of the Adelantado's thousand fighting men. 
In seven hurriedly-built brigantines the fugitives were feeling 
their hurried way down the Mississippi closely followed by their 
Indian foemen. The hostile fleet was composed of a great 
number of war canoes, of from fourteen to twenty-five paddles 
each and carrying, each, from thirty to seventy painted warriors. 
With war-songs and terrific yells the Indian pursuers hovered 



THE EARLIEST MARINERS. 25 

near the Spanish brigantines, and about noon of the second 
day formed their canoes in battle line, as if for an attack. 
Swiftly paddling toward the Spaniards each division of the 
Indian fleet would glide past the hated pale faces discharging 
a shower of arrows and shouting their war-whoops and scalp- 
songs. For several days and nights this style of attack was 
followed up until the Spaniards, wearied with an ineffectual 
defense and scarcely protected by their shields and skin-made 
breastworks, were badly crippled and made but sorry headway. 
Harassed whenever they sought to land and forage, worsted 
whenever they strove to make a retaliatory attack, the Spanish 
refugees at last escaped from their tormentors after more than 
two weeks of this terrible river fighting and were only saved from 
destruction by their final arrival at the open sea, when, with 
parting shouts of defiance and a farewell shower of arrows, the 
Indian fleet gave up the pursuit and the miserable fugitives 
sailed westward across the Gulf to the Spanish settlements 
on the Mexican coast. 

One of the most notable water-fights (which, after all, was no 
real fight at all) was that by which, if we may credit the account 
of Prescott, Cortez the Conquisladore obtained control of " the 
Aztec sea," during that last terrible conflict for the possession 
of the Mexican capital. Swift on the waters of the Tezcucan 
Lake, out of the bosom of which like another Venice rose the 
beautiful city of the Aztecs, swarmed the frail canoes and 
stouter war-boats of " the Indian flotilla" * rallying for the last 
defense of an invaded homeland. Even in this display of naval 
force the Indian tactics consisted rather in a show of force than 
in a real attack. The twelve brigantines of the Spaniards 

* Bernal Diaz with his usual contempt of figures places the number of canoes in this " flotilla " at more 
than four thousand ; Cortez himself estimated them at five hundred. The actual figures were doubtless even less. 



2 6 THE EARLIEST MARINERS. 

massed for battle near the southern shores of the lake quietly 
awaited the Indian advance. But the Aztecs even in the 
supreme moment of danger hesitated to contend with vessels 
so much larger than their simple boats and with silent paddles 
kept fully a musket-shot away from the Spanish fleet. Sud- 
denly a light breeze sprung up. Cortez expanded his battle 
line. His canvas filled with the favoring breeze ; his men stood 
ready for the assault and then, under full sail, the fleet of the 
Spaniards bore clown upon the startled enemy. A storm of 
stones and arrows greeted the approaching boats, but, undis- 
mayed, they held their course and the next moment had dashed 
into the Indian flotilla. It was an unequal fight. The stout 
prows of the brigantines crushed into the sides of the Aztec 
canoes smashing, overturning and sinking. " The water," says 
Prescott, " was covered with the wreck of broken canoes, 
and with the bodies of men struggling for life in the waves and 
vainly imploring their companions to take them on board their 
overcrowded vessels." The deadly lance-thrust and deadlier 
bullet of the merciless invader completed the work of destruc- 
tion. Such canoes as were uninjured turned toward the city, 
and paddling desperately managed at last to escape from the 
terrible destroyers, but by far the greater part of the Aztec 
" navy " and its dusky sailors met their death in this last sea- 
fight of a conquered people. 

These, and similar experiences, show the unskillfulness of 
the American Indian as a man-o'-war's man, and it is not to be 
wondered at that their astonishment at the "canoes with wings " 
in which the mysterious white man came from an unknown 
shore gave place to dread when, in actual conflict, they felt the 
inability of hollowed log and fragile strips of bark to withstand 
the shock of those heavy and unyielding prows. 



THE EARLIEST MARINERS. 27 

But when they essayed to possess themselves of the " winged 
canoes " of their enemies their unskillfulness as sailors was all 
the more apparent. The story of the Narragansett Indians who 
boarded and appropriated Captain John Oldham's schooner is 
proof of this. The Narragansetts were skillful canoeists and 
near-shore sailors, but having murdered that " pest of the 
colony," Captain Oldham and his crew on board his own craft, 
they found themselves utterly at a loss to sail or steer their 
prize, and so were drifting helplessly out to sea when brave 
John Gallup spied them off Block Island. Running them down 
in his little fishing smack Gallup with his mate and two plucky 
fisher boys boarded the unmanageable vessel and assaulting the 
unprofessional pirates drove them into the sea and carried their 
prize safely into port. 

Still another instance of the red-man's deep-sea misadvent- 
ures is that story of certain Carolina Indians who, wearied 
of the white man's sinful ways in trade, thought themselves 
able to deal direct with the consumers across the " Big Sea 
Water." So they built several large canoes and loading these 
with furs and tobacco paddled straight out to sea bound 
for England. But their ignorance of navigation speedily got 
the best of their valor. They were never heard of more, 
and the remorseless ocean that had before their day engulfed 
so many other and more skillful navigators as remorselessly 
swallowed both the vessels and the crews of these would-be 
Indian merchantmen. 

But for all his failures on the water both in navigation and 
in battle the American Indian was still a sailor. The lakes 
and rivers of his native land were well-known sailing courses to 
him, and his canoes bore the simple products of his skill and 
labor from tribe to tribe in a sort of rude system of inland 



28 THE EARLIEST MARINERS. 

commerce. From remote ages an extensive intertribal traffic 
existed in America, and to the services of the native canoeists 
was this traffic largely due. A system of barter linked distant 
and even hostile tribes, and articles from Mexico and Florida 
found their way in time to the far northern nations in Min- 
nesota and New England and the Eastern sea. 

But lake and river and that same broad sea held within them 
possibilities of usefulness too vast to permit them to be forever 
navigated by the crude methods and simple devices of a bar- 
baric race. The prows of commerce and the keels of war were 
destined to cleave the waves and waters that washed the Indian's 
home-land. Even as canoe and dug-out gave place to the more 
intelligent developments of the same basic idea, so did the 
Indian race, itself scarce further advanced in the scale of human 
progress than were canoe and dug-out in the line of naval 
architecture, yield to the dominant influences of a higher civili- 
zation. To-day the Indian's canoe is the vehicle only for the 
sport or pleasure of adventurous idleness, while only in the 
waters of the farthest north does it find a spasmodic use by 
the now degenerate descendants of the earliest of American 
mariners. 



':!»:./Mk 




CHAPTER II. 



NAVIGATORS AND EXPLORERS. 




HE first white navigators in these 
western waters can scarcely be 
considered as American sailors. 
The sons of a distant land they 
came here in foreign-built vessels 
for the purpose of adventure or 
of gain, and for many a year their 
homes and their interests were in 
those lands across the sea which they saw fade from sight in 
the wake of their departing barks or welcomed with eager eyes 
from the bows, of their returning caravels. To Spain, to Hol- 
land, to England and to France their New World possessions 
were of value only for what could be brought away from them 
in treasure or in merchantable produce, and it was only when 
an actual and permanent colonization began that a race of 
native-born sailors was developed on the Atlantic coasts. 

The mists of uncertain tradition closely shroud the earliest 
of these white navigators. The legends of a lost Atlantis — 
that fabulous continent of the mid-Atlantic, whose sea-kings 
sent their galleys to the east and to the west for conquest and 
for commerce — are not more vague and shadowy than are the 

tales that hint at but cannot verify certain marvelous voyages 

29 



3 o NAVIGATORS AND EXPLORERS. 

to the westward by the navigators of a still later day. That old 
street in Moorish Lisbon, Almagrurin, "the way of them that 
go astray," might have had existence in every seaport town in 
maritime Europe, for from the Phoenician coasts to the fiords of 
Norway there had sailed westward into the " Sea of Darkness" 
ships and sailors that had literally gone astray — returning with 
marvelous tales of profitless adventure or returning never 
again to the homes from which they had sailed in search of 
treasure-filled Cathay. 

It is conjectured that enterprising fishermen from the Bay 
of Biscay knew of the American continent and worked its ex- 
haustless northern fishing-grounds years before the date of 
alleged Norse discovery. Indeed there seems to be no valid 
reason why the same enthusiasm that reared the statue of Leif 
the Lucky in the streets of Boston should not with even more 
of certainty erect in some of our northern fishing ports the 
statue of a hardy, Basque fisherman of the ninth or tenth cent- 
ury, tricked out with net and reel and trawl and ancient fishing 
gear as the representation of the earliest European discoverer 
and the first white American sailor. 

But after all neither Basque cod-fisher nor Northern Viking 
did anything to improve or develop their important discoveries. 
To all practical purposes America remained undiscovered until 
the faith of Columbus the Genoese braved all obstacles and 
gave the knowledge of the New World to the Old. 

And not the great Admiral himself so much as his com- 
panions and his successors is entitled to the credit of real 
American exploration and discovery. To the day of his death 
Columbus was ignorant of the true nature of his " find," and 
believed that he had touched the eastern shores of Asia. There 
is reason to believe that Vespucci the Florentine, from whose 



NAVIGATORS AND EXPLORERS. 31 

Christian name Amerigo the printer-monks of St. Die drew the 
name America, was really the first modern discoverer of the 
main continent that bears his name, though the unchronicled 
voyage of that other Genoese, John Cabot " the Admiral," presses 
so closely upon that of Vespucci as to leave the real honor a 
matter of doubt. 

The ships of these first discoverers flying the flags of Spain 
and England were quickly followed by others, impelled by the 
love of adventure or the hope of gain, while their patrons, rulers 
of the rival nations of Europe, in turn claimed the new-found 
lands by the right of discovery and possession. " Every rough 
sailor of the returning ships," says Mr. Gay, "was greeted as a 
hero when to the gaping, wide-eyed crowd he told of his advent- 
ures in that land of summer" and noble and hind alike became 
sailor, discoverer and explorer. 

Most of these earlier voyages were made to the south, but 
some ran northward, and Harrisse affirms that " between the 
end of 1500 and the summer of 1502 navigators, whose name 
and nationality are unknown, but whom we presume to be 
Spaniards, discovered, explored and named the part of the shore 
of the United States which from the vicinity of Pensacola Bay 
runs along the Gulf of Mexico to the Cape of Florida, and turn- 
ing it, runs northward along the Atlantic coast to the mouth 
of the Chesapeake or Hudson." 

The story of all these voyages is full of incident, romance 
and excitement. The unknown sailor who first saw from the 
Pinta's deck the low-lying shore line of that yet unidentified 
island among the Bahama " Keys," was but a type of the thou- 
sands who were to succeed him, like him only to have both 
the glory and the reward filched from them by commanders 
even more ungrateful and appreciative than was Columbus the 



3 2 



NAVIGATORS AND EXPLORERS. 



admiral. The first terror dispelled there was no further need 
for the impressing of seamen for the voyage across the western 
sea. From every port and every part of Europe they came — 
seaman and landsman, noble and vassal, rich and poor — all 
flocking for service in the ships that were to sail to the west- 
ward, to "the land where the spices grow." "There is not a 




IN SEARCH OF CATHAY. 



man," wrote Columbus, "down to the very tailors, who does not 
beg to be allowed to become a discoverer." 

Too often " the very tailors " at whom the Great Admiral 
so discourteously scoffed proved themselves not the least im- 
portant men in the motley crew. In rags and tatters, naked 
and hungry, wind-tossed and wave-tossed, many a ship's com- 
pany was glad to cover their shivering, shipwrecked bodies with 
the skins of wild animals or with strips of Indian fabrics fitted 



NAVIGATORS AND EXPLORERS. 33 

to their needs by these very comrade-tailors that their renowned 
" Admiral " so affected to despise. In cramped and comfortless 
vessels, with but indifferent knowledge of navigation and none 
whatever of the laws of health, with a heterogeneous com- 
pany, ranging in degrees of goodness from the martyrdom- 
seeking missionary to the booty-seeking cut-throat and jail-bird, 
-without authority and without discipline, with constant and 
ever-growing rivalries and jealousies, and therefore with frequent 
disturbances, strifes and mutinies, the voyages of the early ex- 
plorers and navigators were begun in greed and too often ended 
in tragedy. 

But despite all the risk and all the drawbacks the fascina- 
tion of the venture was irresistible. One successful voyage 
blinded the adventurers to a score of failures. And there were 
many such successes. Vessel upon vessel heavily laden with 
the spoils of the New World, wrung from cheated and tortured 
natives and smeared with the blood of victims, went over the 
sea to Spanish, French and English ports. " Of eighteen ves- 
sels dispatched by my sovereigns with the Admiral Columbus 
in his second voyage to the Western Hemisphere," says Peter 
Martyr, " twelve have returned and have brought Gossampine 
cotton, huge trees of dye-wood, and many other articles held 
with us as precious, the natural productions of that hitherto 
hidden world ; and besides all other things, no small quantity 
of gold." Cristobal Guerra and Pedro Nino, earliest among the 
traders of the Spanish Main, brought their little vessel of scarce 
fifty tons burden into a Spanish port in April, 1500, " so laden 
with pearls that they were in maner with every mariner as com- 
mon as chaffe ; " through the early years of that new century 
heavily-freighted ships sent by the roystering bully, Vasco 
Nunez, called Balboa, bore the " King's fifths " in great store 



34 NAVIGATORS AND EXPLORERS. 

of pearls and gold from Darien to Spain ; and the murderers of 
the Peruvian Atahualpa and the Mexican Montezuma freighted 
galleon after galleon with the spoils of their deeds of blood 
until the treasury of Spain grew plethoric with its share of 
the ill-gotten plunder. 

Such traffic awakened jealousies and desire in other than 
Spanish breasts. The Argonauts of England seeing in the 
laden galleons of their hated rivals of Spain, a Golden Fleece 
more magnificent than any their Grecian prototypes had coveted, 
turned marauders themselves and tracked the Spanish sailing 
courses with fire and with blood. Hawkins and Drake, Ra- 
leigh and Grenville, " and a host more of forgotten worthies," 
scoured the Southern Seas for Spanish prizes, and made their 
names a terror and a nightmare to the merchantmen of Spain. 

Piracy thus protected by government easily gave rise to a 
free and unlicensed piracy, and the course of vessels across the 
Atlantic swarmed with marauders watching for their prey. 
Merchant vessels and treasure ships could only venture on their 
trips under strong escort, and the early days of commerce be- 
tween the Old World and the New have given us a terrible 
record of mingled crime and cupidity, hatred, battle and blood. 

But even out of the basest of motives may sometimes spring 
a virtue. This incessant warfare between unlimited greed and 
unlicensed enmity, developed a spirit of daring that has given 
to those old sea-fighters a setting that is strong and heroic. 
Cavendish, the boy-captain of an English ship, writing of his 
exploits among the colonies of Spain, says to his royal mistress 
Elizabeth, that queen and idol of English fighters : " I burnt 
nineteen sail of ships, small and great; and all the villages and 
towns that ever I landed at I burned and spoiled." John 
Hawkins, earliest of English slave-traders, attacked in the 



NAVIGATORS AND EXPLORERS. 35 

harbor of San Juan d'Ulua by the perfidy of Spain, in the 
year 1568, withstood for hours the fearful fire of the Spanish 
fleet and forts, and bore away two of his five little ships from 
under the very guns of the enemy. Francis Drake, with but 
one hundred and sixty-six men, in five small vessels, sailed 
Westward ho in 1577, ravaged the ports and merchantmen of 
Spain throughout the Southern seas, continued on with but one 
small vessel, the Golden Hind, and, after much discovery 
and much brave fighting against fearful odds (interspersed 
with so much of successful marauding that his men were 
"satiated with plunder"), made at last the circuit of the globe, 
received the honor of knighthood from his queen, and from the 
Spaniards, whom he had so often overcome, the title of " the 
English Dragon." Sir Humphrey Gilbert, friend of Sidney and 
Spenser, and beloved of his queen, faced danger and death in 
search of adventure ; wrecked at last in a tempest off the New- 
foundland coast, he bravely met his death, calmly counselling 
his followers to trust and patience. It is of him that Long- 
fellow wrote : — 

"Alas! the land wind failed, 

And ice-cold grew the night, 
And nevermore on sea or shore 

Should Sir Humphrey see the light. 

" He sat upon the deck, 

The Book was in his hand ; 
' Do not fear ! Heaven is as near,' 

He said, ' by water as by land ! ' " 

Sir Richard Grenville — "our second Richard Lion Heart," 
Gerald Massey calls him * — one of the admirals of England, 

* " A wise and gallant gentleman," says Kingsley, " lovely to all good men, awful to all bad men ; in whose 
presence none dare say or do a mean or ribald thing ; whom brave men left, feeling themselves nerved to do their 
duty better, while cowards slipped away, as bats and owls before the sun." 



3 6 NAVIGATORS AND EXPLORERS. 

for fifteen hours, off the Isle of Flores, held at bay with his 
single ship, the Revenge, fifteen great Spanish galleons, and 
yielded at last only with his life to the press of overpowering 
numbers. Here is a poet's picture of the hero's end : — 

" Around that little bark Revenge 

The baffled Spaniards ride 
At distance. Two of their good ships 

Were sunken at her side ; 
The rest lie round her in a ring, 
As round the dying lion-king 
The dogs, afraid of his death-spring. 

"Our pikes all broken, powder spent; 

Sails, masts to shred were blown ; 
And with her dead and wounded crew 

The ship was going down ! 
Sir Richard's wounds were hot and deep. 
Then cried he, with a proud, pale lip, 
' Ho, gunner, split and sink the ship ! 

" ' Make ready now, my mariners, 

To go aloft with me, 
That nothing to the Spaniard 

May remain of victory. 
They cannot take us, nor we yield ; 
So let us leave our battle-field 
Under the shelter of God's shield.' 

" They had no heart to dare fulfill 

The stern commander's word : 
With bloody hands and weeping eyes, 

They carried him aboard 
The Spaniard's ship ; and round him stand 
The warriors of his wasted band ; 
Thus said he, feeling death at hand: — 

" ' Here die I, Richard Grenville, 

With a joyful and quiet mind; 
I reach a soldier's end ; I leave 

A soldier's fame behind, 



NAVIGATORS AND EXPLORERS. 



37 



Who for his queen and country fought, 
For honor and religion wrought, 
And died as a true soldier ought.' " * 



These are but samples of the daring English valor that 
upheld the English name upon the western sea and laid the 
foundation of that later mettle that was to yield upon the 
.shores they came to discover a race of hardy and intrepid 




THE FIRST SIGHT OF LAND. 



American seamen. At this remove we think less of their 
faults than of their virtues, and shrining their deeds of heroism 
in the stirring lines of poet and romancer, forget the flaws that 

*The exact words of Grenville, here paraphrased by Gerald Massey, were: " Here die I, Richard Grenville, 
with a joyful and quiet mind, for that I have ended mv life, as a true soldier ought to do, fighting for his country, 
queen, religion and honor." It is stated by some authorities that he held at bay in this memorable sea fight, instead 
of fifteen Spanish galleons, the entire fleet of fifty-three ships and ten thousand men. 



38 NAVIGATORS AND EXPLORERS. 

history may discover in their characters, and reverence them 
rather as those types " of English virtue," as Kingsley declares 
them to be, " at once manful and godly, practical and en- 
thusiastic, prudent and self-sacrificing," and which he has 
depicted with so much vigor and beauty in that noblest of all 
stories of the early adventurers, " Westward Ho ! " the story 
of Amyas Leigh. 

But not alone upon the Spanish Main were daring and valor 
linked with adventure and discovery. Far to the north, along 
that ragged Atlantic coast line, might be seen the white sails 
of navigator and explorer bent upon the rinding of new worlds 
to conquer, to plunder and to people. They came in less num- 
ber than to the Southern seas, but they came in sufficient force 
to complicate the claims of possession and to embroil nations 
in controversy and war. 

Spaniard and Frenchman, Englishman and Dutchman in 
turn unfurled their flags in Northern waters and set up the 
arms of their respective countries in token of possession upon 
the self-same sand barren, the same rocky point, the same 
forest-covered slope. Bays were entered, harbors sounded and 
rivers explored, while along the entire coast from Labrador to 
Florida the same prominent coasting grounds received from 
various discoverers various names and titles. The jutting point 
off which Thorvald the Viking fought in 1003 his losing sea- 
fight with the " Skraellings " (Indians) and where to-day he lies 
buried,* 5 ' looked out over Whittier's " turquoise bay " — that 
island-studded stretch of sea-water that the Norsemen of Thor- 
vald's day called the Gulf of the Skraellings' land ; the Span- 
iards the Bay of San Cristoval ; the French explorers the Sea 
of Verrazano, or the Great Bay ; the Dutch sailors on Captain 

* " Krossaness " the "place of crosses" near Nantasket Beach or on Point Allerton. 



NAVIGATORS AND EXPLORERS. 39 

Block's Onrust the North Sea, and the later English colonists 
Massachusetts Bay. So, too, that well-known arm of New 
England where with doubled fist Massachusetts, as Dr. Holmes 
says, " squares off at all the world," was the Keel Cape of the 
Norsemen, the Franciscan Cape of Cartier the Frenchman and 
the White Cape of that later Frenchman the intrepid Cham- 
' plain ; it was the Sandy Cape of the Spaniards, the Staaten 
Hoeck of the Dutch and the Shoal Hope, and Cape Cod of 
the English. The Rio San Antonio of the Spaniard Gomez 
became the River of the Mountains of Verrazano the French- 
man, the " Great River " or the " North River " of the explorer 
Hudson, the "Great River of Prince Maurice" of his later 
Dutch successors and Hudson's or the Hudson River of its 
English masters. The greater river of the South appears upon 
respective maps as the Malbanchia of the Indians, the Palissado 
and Espiritu Santo of the Spaniards and the Mississippi of the 
French and the English. The pleasant capes of Maryland, the 
shifting sands of Hatteras, the flower-bordered coves of Florida 
in like manner took to themselves names in the language and 
according to the inclinations of respective and successive dis- 
coverers, and upon those very names and claims the white 
man's rivalries, animosities and greed visited the baptism of 
fire and of blood. 

And in what "ships" those hardy mariners braved the 
terrors of the Western seas ! Ships they could scarcely be 
called. " Very cockle-shells of boats," is what Irving terms 
them. The Santa Maria, the largest of the three vessels of 
Columbus, was but a craft of a hundred tons burden — sixty- 
three feet long, fifty-one feet keel, twenty feet beam and ten 
and a half feet draft of water; the Nina and Pinta were very 
much smaller — "open caravels" of scarcely fifty tons bur- 



4 o NAVIGATORS AND EXPLORERS. 

den. In fact most of the vessels, so says Irving, "with which 
Columbus undertook his long and perilous voyages were of light 
and frail construction, and little superior to the small craft 
which ply on rivers and along coasts in modern days." The 
famous Victoria of Fernando da Magalhaens, or Magellan, in 
which that daring adventurer in 1520 circumnavigated the globe 
was of scare ninety tons burden. In "a small vessel" (the 
Matthew) John Cabot in 1497 "committed himself to fortune" 
and discovered the North American continent. The schooners 
of Verrazanno and Cortreal were scarcely more than fishing 
smacks. Neither one of the " ships " of Jacques Cartier, father 
of Canada, exceeded sixty tons burden ; the Squirrel on which 
Sir Humphrey Gilbert went down to his death off the coast 
of Newfoundland was of but ten tons burden — scarcely more 
than a yacht; Sir Francis Drake's stanch little vessel, the 
Judith, with which he withstood the Spanish fleet at San Juan 
d'Ulua was of less than fifty tons burden; his still more cele- 
brated ship the Pelican, which Queen Elizabeth ordered to be 
forever preserved as a memorial of his bravery, was a vessel of 
but a hundred tons, and Henry Hudson's famous Half-Moon 
was but a Dutch yacht or " vlie-boat " of eighty tons.* 

When it is remembered that in the palmy days of the Amer- 
ican merchant service the ships engaged in ocean ventures 
ranged from two hundred to five hundred tons burden, and the 
frigates of the naval marine from seven hundred to twelve hun- 
dred tons, some idea may be formed of the risks run by the 
early navigators in their attempting to thread the unknown 

* "The splendid ships of the merchant marine of our day," says Dr. Francis L. Hawks, "render it 
strange to us that voyages should have been made across the Atlantic in such small craft as we have named. The 
largest vessel (the Tiger, in Sir Richard Grenviile's fleet of 1585) was but of one hundred and forty tons, and some 
were of less size than a modern pilot boat. But even the caravel in which Columbus discovered the continent was 
of some thirty tons only; and the luxurious accommodations, the skill and safety of an Atlantic voyage now, furnish 
no proper picture of the risk and privations of the first European voyages to America. The humblest passenger 
and most common seaman probably have more comforts now than had the Admiral Sir Richard Grenville in 1585." 




Ol-'K KROSSANESS. 



NAVIGATORS AND EXPLORERS. 43 

courses of a tempestuous ocean in such frail and insignificant 
vessels as those whose decks they so hopefully and yet so anx- 
iously trod. 

Still further toward the north the adventurers turned their 
prows. Firm in the belief that the way to Cathay and the 
Indian seas lay through the Northern Ocean, the lead of Cabot 
and of Cartier was followed by Frobisher and Davis who pushed 
their ships in 1578 and 1585 against the ice-packs of the Arctic 
circle. Their reports led still others to brave the rigors of 
the Frozen Sea, and Waymouth and Hudson, Button and Baffin 
in the opening years of the seventeenth century made the futile 
attempt to find a clear sailing course along the ice-bound 
Northern shores of the new continent. Forerunners of that in- 
trepid army of explorers and navigators who have sought to 
solve the still unsettled problem of the Pole, their most practical 
discovery was the profitable outlet for the fur trade of the North 
that resulted in 1670 in the incorporation of the Hudson Bay 
Company, but from their day to this later era of Franklin and 
Kane and Greely " the open strait to Cathay " still remains un- 
discovered, closed against the hardy seamen of the Arctic zones 
by the impenetrable barriers of the Palaecrystic Sea. 

So, north and south, through those early years of discovery, 
the navigators of Europe steered their little crafts. Each new 
voyage led to still other ventures, and the " able seaman " of 
one expedition became the captain or commander of a later 
one. The merchants and capitalists of England and Spain, of 
Portugal, Holland and France, advanced the moneys needed for 
each new attempt; hoping now for gold, now for slaves, or now 
for a profitable freight of pearls, or furs, or other coveted pro- 
ducts of the Western world. Attempts at colonization might 
fail, still others were made ; the jealousies of rival leaders or of 



44 NAVIGATORS AND EXPLORERS. 

hostile nations might wreck the hopes of one carefully-planned 
venture, another, spite of loss and death, was certain to follow 
speedily. On the Florida coast alike French Huguenot and 
Spanish Catholic fell victims to a war of creeds, and all along 
the Atlantic coast from St. Augustine to Pemaquid and Acadia 
each step in discovery and exploration was the source of inter- 
national dispute and personal encounter. But still capitalists 
risked their much-loved gold, captains persisted and adven- 
turers flocked to the western-bound ships, * undeterred by the 
tales of loss and ruin that came from over-sea, while from sea- 
port and from country town sailors and landsmen hastened to 
enlist again for the search for gold along the far-off shores. 
To them there was no such word as fail ; on the wrecks of 
earlier hopes they pressed to new endeavors confident, every 
one, that not the forecastle but the quarter-deck, not the farm- 
house but the palace was to be his final goal ; each as brave 
at heart and yet as full of boastful hopes as was Sir Thomas 
Stukely, the knight of Ilfracombe, who went pompously west- 
ward to people the land of Florida, boldly declaring to Queen 
Elizabeth that he had rather be sovereign of a mole hill than 
the highest subject of an emperor, and telling her plainly that, 
for himself, he, in that far western Eldorado, looked to be a 
prince before he died. 

Poor fellows ! They were but illy prepared to buffet the 
stormy seas and brave the rigors of an unknown coast. But, 
thinking only of possible gain, they embarked, sailor and 
landsmen alike, for service before the mast, lured on by the 
specious promises of gentlemen adventurers and half-piratical 
captains, into the mouth of one of whom — Captain John 

* In 1543, 1544 and 1545, M. Gosselin declares, after careful studies of the old French records, "this 
ardor toward the New Lands was sustained ; and during the months of January and February, from Havre and 
Rouen, and from Dieppe and Honfleur, about two ships left every day." 



NAVIGATORS AND EXPLORERS. 



45 



Oxenham of Devon, Kingsley puts this "listing call" before 
the tavern door of the " little white town of Biddeford," on 
the pleasant sea slopes of North Devon — then (in 1575) 
one of the chief ports of England : — 

" Come ; come along ! Who lists ? Who lists ? Who'll make his fortune ? 

' Oh ! who will join, jolly mariners all ? 

And who will join, says he, O! 
To till his pockets with the good, red goold, 

By sailing on the sea, O ! ' 

" Who'll join ? Who'll join ? It's but a step of a way, after all, and sailing as smooth as 
a duck-pond as soon as you're past Cape Finisterre. I'll run a Clovelly herring-boat there 
and back for a wager of twenty pound, and never ship a bucketful all the way. Who'll join ? 
Who'll join ? " 

And when moved by such rude eloquence as this and by 
the misty promises of luck that seemed to lurk behind it cer- 
tain of the more adventurous and ambitious ones came for- 
ward to " list," Captain Oxenham made them all the more 
determined by an apparent change of tone : — 

" Now, then, my merry men all," he said, " make up your minds what mannered men you 
be minded to be before you take your bounties. I want none of your rascally lurching long- 
shore vermin, who get five pounds out of this captain, and ten out of that, and let him sail 
without them after all while they are stowed away in tavern cellars. If any man is of that 
humor, he had better to cut himself up, and salt himself down in a barrel for pork, before he 
meets me again ; for by this light, let me catch him, be it seven years hence, and if I do not 
cut his throat upon the streets, it's a pity! But if any man will be true brother to me, true 
brother to him I'll be, come wreck or prize, storm or calm, salt water or fresh, victuals or 
none, share and fare alike ; and here's my hand upon it for every man and all ; and so — 

' Westward ho! with a rumbelow, 

And hurrah for the Spanish Main, C) ! ' " 

And how often those hopes of good luck came to naught! 
Thovald the Viking laid his bones upon the inhospitable shores 



46 



NAVIGATORS AND EXPLORERS. 



of Massachusetts Bay, the defeated leader of a profitless expe- 
dition. " There shall ye bury me," said he, " and set up crosses 
at my head and feet, and call the spot the place of crosses 
(krossanes) forever." Of the companions of Columbus scarce 
one but shared what Irving calls " the usual lot of the Spanish 
discoverers, whose golden anticipations too frequently ended in 
penury." Balboa, Narvaez, de Leon, de Soto, de Luna, and 

other " hidalgos of 
Spain," ended their 
cruises for fortune in 
disaster and in death. 
Gaspar Cortereal, the 
Portuguese navigator, 
and his brother Miguel, 
seeking to discover a 
northern passage t o 
India, sailed toward 
the Labrador coast, 
and were never heard 
of more. Verrazanno, 
the Frenchman, e x - 
plorer of the easterly 
coast of the United 
States, and discoverer 
of New York, turned pirate and was hanged by the Spaniards,* 
upon whose commerce he had preyed. Sir Francis Drake, 
the " Dragon of England," conqueror of the Spaniards and dis- 
coverer of California, died on board his ship, sick with the 
fever, and of mortification at the failure of his last piratical 




ALONZO PINZON THE PILOT. 
(A type of the old Navigators.) 



* Another account states that he was killed and eaten by American cannibals, in 1527. Either ending was 
sufficiently disastrous. 



NAVIGATORS AND EXPLORERS. 47 

cruise; Hudson and Gilbert still searching for the unattainable 
died, the one by mutiny and the other by shipwreck on the 
waters of the icy north. And the fate of these captains of 
notable name was but the end of hundreds of less note or of 
no renown, companions and followers, captains and seamen, 
who, sailing from old-world ports, with rosy expectations of 
success and gain, laid their bones upon the wreck-strewn coasts 
that ground their keels to powder, or found a watery grave 
beneath the waves that beat upon the new world's shores. Few, 
comparatively, of those old-time voyagers could exhibit such a 
"log" as was so jubilantly recorded by Captain Luke Fox from 
Deptford : " Caste anchor in the Downs on thirty-first October 
(163 1 ), not having lost one Man nor Boy, nor Soule, nor any 
manner of Tackling, having beene forth neere six moneths. 
All glory be to God ! " 

Explorers and navigators speedily gave place to colonists. 
From ventures in the western and southern seas came the 
crude settlements along the coasts. From the insecure foot- 
hold came the successful occupation, and, despite all the dis- 
asters and sorrows of colonization, the stream of emigration 
steadily set in from the old world to the new. It grew with 
each new year; homes were established around each stockaded 
point ; landing-places developed into harbors, and harbors into 
seaports ; growing necessities afforded new opportunities until, 
at last, along the Atlantic coast from the St. Lawrence to the 
capes of Florida the slowly increasing demands of colonial com- 
merce gave rise to the new race of native American sailors. 



nwp 




CHAPTER III. 



COLONIAL SHIPS AND SAILORS. 




UST when and by whom the first keel 
was laid and the first vessel built by 
European ship-carpenters upon the 
American coasts it is not easy to de- 
termine. 

The half-legendary story of that early 
repair-work of the year 1004 that gave to Cape Cod its Norse 
name of Kjalarness or Kell-ness (the place or cape of the keel) 
has scarcely enough of proof to render it authentic. The raft 
of Nicuesa the Spaniard upon which, in 1509, he and his ship- 
wrecked crew vainly essayed to escape from the desolate West 
Indian "key " upon which they had been thrown could scarcely 
be esteemed a ship. Nor can we count as completed work the 
unfinished caravel commenced by the traitorous Olano, in 15 10, 
at the mouth of the Belen River. We must therefore surmise 
that the four brigantines built in 15 16 by Balboa on the Pacific 
side of the Isthmus of Panama from wood felled and transported 
across the mountains for the first Pacific " squadron " were in 
reality the first home-made vessels launched in American waters. 
The two brigantines which Martin Lopez in 1520 built for 
Cortez seem to be the next constructions of record, but these 
all were surpassed by the fleet of invasion built by Cortez for 



COLONIAL SHIPS AND SAILORS. 



49 



the final conquest of a tottering empire : thirteen brigantines 
constructed by Martin Lopez at Tlascala and launched upon 
the Lake Tezcuco on the twenty-eighth of April, 1521 — "the 
first navy," says Bancroft, "worthy of the name, ever launched 
in American waters." 

In 1528 Panfilo de Narvaez, self-styled governor of Florida 
and the Mississippi, scoured the coast of Florida for gold and 
slaves and paid for his perfidy toward the natives of that " land 
of flowers " with his death. Lured on by the rumors of an even 
greater Eldorado than Mexico — the golden city of Apalache 
— Narvaez and his men left their vessels behind them in or near 
Tampa Bay and struck inland only to encounter disappointment 
and defeat. Returning, after the greatest hardships, to the 
coast, they could find no trace of their ships and in their des- 
peration set about to build themselves other vessels to take 
them away from this land of blasted hopes. But, says the 
narrative of Cabeza de Vaca, the treasurer of the expedition, 
" we knew not how to construct, nor were there tools, nor iron, 
nor forge, nor tow, nor resin, nor rigging ; finally, no one thing 
of so many that are necessary, nor any man who had a knowl- 
edge of their manufacture. And, above all, there was nothing 
to eat the while they were making, nor any knowledge in those 
who would have to perform the labor." 

Necessity, however, has ever proved herself the mother of 
invention. With nothing, apparently, to assist them in their 
undertaking, these stranded adventurers contrived after infinite 
exertions to build for their escape five rude and scarce sea- 
worthy brigantines. To accomplish this they actually built 
themselves into their boats ; for, stripping their persons of what- 
ever they had of metal — their armor, swords, spears and horses' 
trappings — they forged these into tools and nails. Cutting 



5 o COLONIAL SHIPS AND SALLORS. 

down trees for the ribs and woodwork of their boats, they made 
their cordage from the manes and tails of their horses, killed 
(one every third day) for food. They calked the seams of their 
boats with the fiber of the palmetto-trees and pitched them with 
resin from the pine-trees. They sewed their shirts into sails ; 
they tanned the skin from their horses' legs into water bottles, 
and after six weeks of unceasing labor they completed and 
launched their five home-made boats, each about thirty-three 
feet long, and embarked on the homeward voyage, fifty men 
crowding into each one of these frail crafts. Thus the very first 
ships built upon the coast of the United States were the work 
of a band of shipwrecked adventurers driven to desperate de- 
vices to escape in any way from the very land they had set out 
with so much of bombast and of hope to conquer and colonize. 

It would seem as if so much energy and pluck should not 
have gone for naught. But disaster still pursued them. In a 
great storm, probably off the present harbor of Galveston, four 
of the boats were driven ashore and broken in pieces. Of the 
shipwrecked company all save four were soon drowned, killed 
or starved, and these four, of whom de Vaca was one, finally 
reached a Spanish settlement after long wandering and surpris- 
ing adventures. The fifth boat, in which had sailed Narvaez 
the unlucky leader of a luckless expedition, was never heard of 
more. 

De Soto, successor of Narvaez as Adalantado of Florida, 
succeeded also to his heritage of woe. His glittering company 
of a thousand men, dwindled to scarce three hundred. The 
leader himself, dying of hardship, disappointment and despair, 
closed his adventurous career in a midnight burial nineteen 
fathoms down beneath the turbid waters of the Mississippi. The 
survivors, anxious to escape from a country where they had 



COLONIAL SHIPS AND SAILORS. 



5* 



known only woe, set about the building of seven brigantines to 
carry them down the Mississippi to the Gulf. These they con- 
structed just above the mouth of the Arkansas River, after six 
months of hard labor, devoting to the work as had the followers 
of Narvaez, their 
armor, horse-gear and 
c a m p belongings, 
even to their store of 
shot and the chains 
in which they had 
hoped to lead away 
a multitude of Indian 
slaves. The bark of 
the mulberry-trees 
and the fibers of a 
hemp-like plant sup- 
plied them with cord- 
age and oakum and 
the woven mantles of 
their Indian neigh- 
bors were taken for 
sails. Then after an 



excitine 



of 




A SPANISH GALLEON. 



-& voyage 
seventeen days down 
the Mississippi, fight- 
ing their Indian pur- 
suers to the very last they reached the Gulf and cruised along 
the coast for fifty days more until they reached the Spanish 
settlements. 

Of a somewhat similar nature to these Spanish attempts at 
ship-building in the New World was that of the pinnace con- 



52 COLONIAL SHIPS AND S ALL OPS. 

structed, in 1562, by the French colonists, near Beaufort in 
South Carolina. Grown desperate because of their seeming 
abandonment by France (when the bloody feuds of Catholic 
and Huguenot drove from men's minds the remembrance of 
this struggling little colony over-sea) the escaping remnant of 
Ribault's colony with " slender victual " and " without foresight 
and consideration " hoisted upon their crazy pinnace their sails 
of sheets and shirts and put to sea. " No madder voyage," says 
one authority, " was ever undertaken." Storm-tossed for days 
in an unseaworthy craft, food and water were soon exhausted 
and life was only sustained by the horrible " death by lot," by 
which one comrade was sacrificed to appease the hunger of the 
rest. Rescue came at length from an English ship by which they 
were borne not to their French homes, but to English prisons. 

Thus disaster followed disaster and scarcely a ship, built by 
unskillful hands, ever made the homeward voyage. Shipwreck 
in those sunny Southern seas was always imminent. The trop- 
ical hurricanes strewed the Florida coast with the fragments of 
many a Spanish wreck, and to tempt the waters in an unsea- 
worthy craft was almost certain death. But man is always 
ready to try the one chance in ten. The beginnings of colonial 
ship-building in America were laid in defeat rather than in 
honest progress and can find with us little of approval save as 
they display the ingenuity of man when driven to desperate 
straits. 

But at last the conquerors, coming as conquerors merely, 
gave place to the colonists. And in every colony were always 
to be found one or more ship-carpenters. 

The " Popham colony" sailing westward in the spring of 
1607 in the ships of its patentees, Sir John Popham and Sir 
Ferdinando Gorges, brought from England to the mouth of 



COLONIAL SHIFS AND SAILORS. 



53 



the Kennebec a company of one hundred and twenty persons. 
Among their number were entered besides artisans, carpenters, 
sawyers and laborers, a smith and a master ship-builder. This 
latter was Thomas Digby, and one of his first labors was to 
cut down sufficient timber, from which, when duly seasoned, he 
shaped the timbers, laid the keel and built for the use of the 
colony a small pinnace of thirty tons which was christened the 
Virginia. This was the first vessel built by Englishmen in 
American waters. She made several trips across the Atlantic, 
but the first use made of her was, it is said, to convey back to 
England before the close of the winter 1607-8 nearly two thirds 
of the Kennebec colonists, already discouraged by the severity 
of a winter on the storm-swept coast of Maine. 

On a November night in the year 161 3 the Dutch lawyer- 
captain Adriaen Block, lay off the southerly point of Manhattan 
island in his galiot the Tiger. He was awaiting the lading of 
a final cargo of furs from the Hudson River Indians before 
sailing for home. Suddenly there was a cry of fire. The Tiger 
was in flames, how or from what cause no one ever learned. 
Roused to action, as is the Dutch nature, none too speedily, 
captain and crew rowed ashore sad and homeless, and their 
o-ood o-aliot burned to the water's ed°e. But if the Dutch nat- 
ure is slow to action it is slow to acknowledge defeat. With 
no useless bemoanings of their ill-luck they set to work at once 
knowing that winter was closing in and that the Tiger was the 
last of the fur fleet for that season. So they built for them- 
selves rude but substantial winter quarters at what is now No. 39 
Broadway — the earliest beginnings of New York City — and 
these completed set to work on a new vessel with which to 
leave their winter prison when the spring should set in. It 
was a rude little craft — De Laet calls it a " yacht " — but it 



54 COLONIAL SHIPS AND SAILORS. 

was a substantial one. It was thirty-eight feet keel, forty-four 
and a half feet deck and eleven feet beam. It was of sixteen 
tons burden and was the first decked vessel built within the 
limits of the United States. Captain Block called her the On- 
rus t — the Restless, and in the spring of 1614 she was duly 
launched in the waters of the Upper Bay, sailed through the 
dangerous reefs of Hell Gate and coasted the shores of Long 
Island and Connecticut. Block in the Onrust is believed to 
be the first European navigator who ever sailed over the length 
of his "beautiful inland sea" — that sparkling stretch of salt 
water that men now know as Long Island Sound. 

Slowly along the coast, as the colonies increased, the needs 
of commerce grew. The New England settlers and those of 
the Canadian shores drew so much of their living from 
beneath the waters, that they soon felt the need of fishing and 
trading craft. As the years rolled on many an honest keel was 
laid along the indented shore line from Maine to Maryland, 
and many a sloop and shallop, many a pinnace, bark and ketch, 
American built, were launched in American waters. The ship 
carpenter was an important artificer in every seaside settle- 
ment, and it is stated that at the breaking out of the Revo- 
lution there were more people in the northern part of New 
England (in Maine and New Hampshire) engaged in ship- 
building and in navigation than there were in agriculture. 

But at the first this progress was slow. The colonists were 
poor, and altogether dependent upon the Mother Countries for 
their needed supplies. And the Mother Countries intended 
that they should be. Restriction of colonial trade meant 
profits for the home traders' pockets. The authorities at court, 
as we shall see in due time, made no move to help but instead 
sought to hinder the growth of American ship-building. 



COLONIAL SHIPS AND SAILORS. 57 

This, however, was an industry that even kings and decrees 
could not stay. As has been said, every colony, every settle- 
ment ere long had its ship-carpenter. 

One such established himself among the people of the 
Plymouth Colony in 1624, and though he died not long after 
his arrival, he still had strength and time enough to build for 
the colony two shallops. This was the name given to a sort 
of primitive schooner much used for the coasting-trade. The 
first of these two shallops made her trial voyage with a cargo 
of corn to the colonists at the mouth of the Kennebec, but 
it may be inferred that her crew were not too comfortably 
housed in their cabinless craft. She had, so says the old 
record, "a little deck over her amidships to keep ye corn 
drie ; but ye men were faine to stand it out in all weather 
without shelter." The rou^h weather of the New England 
coast doubtless impelled the master and owners to make their 
open boat more habitable, for we read that the next year (1625) 
they " sawed her in ye middle, and so lengthened her some five 
or six foote, and strengthened her timbers, and so builte her up 
and laid a deck on her ; and so made her a conveniente and 
wholesome vessell, very fitt and comfortable for their use ; 
which did them service seven yeares after ; and they gott her 
finished and fitted her with sayles ye ensuing year." Such a 
craft as this seems to have served the purposes of the colonists 
without immediate additions, for we read that in the year 1627 
the whole tonnage of New England consisted simply of " a 
bass-boat, shallop and pinnace." 

But before the seven years' service of this lengthened 
shallop were up two other and more ambitious attempts at 
ship-building were made in the colonies. On the Fourth of 
July, 1 63 1, the first war- vessel built within the confines of what 



58 COLONIAL SHIPS AND SAILORS. 

is now the United States of America, was launched into the 
Mystic River. This vessel was a bark of from thirty to forty 
tons burden, and was made from locust timber cut upon Gov- 
ernor Winthrop's farm — the " Ten hills " — near to the 
present town of Medford. Less than twenty years ago the 
identical ways upon which this bark was launched into 
the Mystic, were still standing and in a good state of preserva- 
tion. Though not originally intended as a man-o'-war, as her 
rather poetical name, " The Blessing of the Bay," would seem 
to imply, this excellent sample of Master Walter Merry's 
honest ship-building work proved so staunch a craft that she 
was soon after her launching converted by the Massachusetts 
colony into a cruiser against the alleged pirates who were 
already preying upon the colonial commerce. 

But by far the most notable venture in ship-building was 
made in that same year of 1 63 1 , in the six-year-old Dutch 
colony in the Manhattans. The fine timber that shaded that 
island colony was peculiarly adapted to boat-building, and we 
read, not infrequently, of carefully-selected masts made from 
the loftiest trees and sent by the colonists as gifts to their 
masters of the Amsterdam Chamber in Holland. 

Two ship-builders from Belgium, attracted by the reports of 
the fine timber of the Manhattans, conceived it would be a 
profitable business to convert some of it into a great ship. 
The Heer Minuet, director-general of the colony, was speedily 
won over to their undertaking, and backed them with the funds 
of the Dutch West India Company. In good time the vessel 
was launched — a mighty ship of eight hundred tons burden, 
and carrying thirty guns. It was duly christened the Nieuw 
Netherlands, and furnished much food for boastful talk in shop 
and storehouse and on the neighbors* " stoopes." 



COLONIAL SHIPS AND SAL LOR S. 



59 



And well it might, for it was indeed one of the finest exam- 
ples of the naval architecture of its day. Not for fully two 
hundred years after the launching of the Nieuw Netherlands 
was so vast a vessel built in America. For when it was com- 
pleted, alike the Belgian ship-builders and the Heer Director 
Minuet discovered that they had upon their hands as large an 
elephant as had the owners of the giant steamship, Great 
Eastern, two hundred and thirty years afterward. The expense 
of building far exceeded the original estimates. The States 
General of Holland censured the company ; the company's 
shareholders grumbled at the directors ; and the directors 
searching for a 'scapegoat pitched upon their ambitious 
director-general, and he was incontinently recalled to Holland 
and deprived of his office. 

What was the future of the big ship the records of the 
time afford no trace, but its failure appears for a time at least 
to have put a check upon ship-building at New Amsterdam, for 
even after the Dutch colony became the English province of 
New York, we learn that though " a thousand shipps may ride 
here safe from wind and weather," there were in 1678 (over 
fifty years after the launching of the Nieuw Netherlands) only 
" five small shipps and a ketch belonging to New Yorke, fou re 
of them built there." 

The building of this large vessel by the Dutch colonists 
seems however to have given a certain impetus to the trade in 
the northern colonies. A Master Peter of Salem, in the Bay 
Colony built in 1640, a ship of three hundred tons burden, and 
forthwith the people of Boston, not to be outdone by their 
neighbors of Salem, built in the shipyard of Master Bourne, a 
vessel of a hundred and sixty tons. " The work," says Gov- 
ernor Winthrop, " was hard to accomplish, for want of money, 



6o 



COLONIAL SHIPS AND SAILORS. 



etc., but our shipwrights were content to take such pay as the 
country could make." 

Indeed, ship-building seems to have prospered in Massachu- 
setts more notably than in any other of the American colonies 
of the English crown. For while in the Connecticut colony, 




" THE TERRORS OF THE WESTERN SEAS. 



as late as 1686 there were to be found as the property of the 
colonists but " a ketch or two and about six or seven sloops " 
and in New York, in the same year, only some nine or ten 
three-masters of not over a hundred tons burden, two or three 
ketches and barks and less than twenty sloops there were built 
in the Massachusetts colony as early as 1642 " besides many 



COLONIAL SHIPS AND SAILORS. 61 

boats, shallops, hoys, lighters and pinnaces, other ships of a 
hundred, two hundred, three hundred and four hundred tons," 
while at a date just before the Revolution it is estimated that 
Massachusetts owned one vessel for every one hundred of its 
inhabitants. 

Further to the south Maryland and Virginia, the Carolinas 
and Georgia, did but little in the real work of ship-building, 
trusting their commerce to English-built vessels rather than to 
home-made keels. Indeed, the restrictive policy of England, 
already referred to, impeded as far as it was able this necessary 
industry and the English parliament in the hundred and 
twenty years following its first decree of 1650, enacted thirty 
distinct and separate laws aimed at the destruction or at least 
at the restriction of the commercial trade of the colonies. By 
these statutes the export and import trade of the Colonies was 
largely restricted to English-built ships and no imports into 
a British colony were allowed save in an English-built ship 
" whereof the master and three fourths of the crew are Ene- 
lish." It was the enactment of such arbitrary laws as these 
that constituted one of the leadin<>" grievances asrainst England 
and stood as one of the causes for colonial revolution. 

But, despite the tyranny of English masters and the greed 
of English capital, the commerce of the American colonies 
grew slowly but steadily. At the outbreak of the Revolution 
after one hundred and fifty years of occupation and gradual 
development, the coasting, fishing and carrying trade of Amer- 
ica had assumed excellent proportions. The bulk of it, of 
course, was done by northern and especially by New England 
craft. The people of that sea-washed " dominion " in large 
proportion followed the sea. " Every port of the rugged coast," 
says Mr. Lodge, " had its little town from whose harbor issued 



62 COLONIAL SHIPS AND SALLORS. 

the fishermen and coasters, who faced the storms of the North 
Atlantic, and did as much as any single class to build up the 
fortunes of the Eastern provinces." The foreign commerce of 
Boston alone in 1765 employed six hundred vessels, while more 
than a thousand were engaged in the fishing and coasting trade. 
The great " Long Wharf " of this old colonial metropolis, pushed 
out its two thousand feet of length into the blue waters of the 
beautiful harbor and was covered with handsome and substan- 
tial warehouses. From this famous dock sailed many a shrewd 
and venturesome Yankee skipper in his home-built bark loaded 
down with the fish of his native shores and bound perhaps 
for one of the far southern ports of the West India Islands. 
Arrived at the country of the " Dons " he would exchange his 
cargo of New England fish for one of West Indian products. 
This done, instead of returning home, he would steer over-seas 
to England where the chances were he would dispose of both 
cargo and vessel at a good round price. Then, chartering an 
English ship, he would come home laden with British manufac- 
tures to find a ready market among his own friends and neigh- 
bors and receive their congratulations upon his successful and 
profitable sea-venture. 

The New York colony followed hard upon that of Massa- 
chusetts in its growing sea-trade. She had over five hundred 
vessels employed in the carrying trade ; the cry of " From New 
York bound for " so and so came back in reply to the hail of 
the passing ship in many a foreign sea. One stout little 
sloop of scarce eighty tons built in an Albany shipyard made in 
1785 the voyage to China and back with success and profit. 

New Jersey's trade went out for the most part through 
New York and Philadelphia, though it carried on a small 
coasting and river traffic of its own in local ports. 



COLONIAL SHIPS AND SALLORS. 63 

In 1765 Pennsylvania employed in her shipping interests a 
fleet of nearly five hundred vessels and over seven thousand 
seamen. Ships were built in Philadelphia dock-yards for the 
use of the colonial traders and the commerce of the province 
was its most fruitful source of wealth. 

The provinces to the south, as has already been said, 
depended largely upon northern or English ships for their com- 
mercial ventures. With fewer good harbors than had the 
rushed northern coast the southern cargoes of tobacco and of 
rice were shipped in English vessels and the arrival of the 
annual ship from England laden with goods which were sent 
by the London factor in exchange for a cargo of tobacco was 
the great event of the year to many a Virginia planter. 

The carrying trade of North Carolina, so the journal of 
the garrulous Colonel William Byrd declares, was " engrossed 
by the saints of New England who carry off a great deal of 
tobacco without troubling themselves with paying the imperti- 
nent duty of a penny a pound." 

The port and harbor of Charleston and the excellent 
system of trade that existed in that province previous to the 
Revolution brought in an annual revenue of seven hundred 
thousand pounds and gave employment to nearly two hundred 
vessels ; and Georgia at the same period, employed in her 
commercial ventures more than two hundred vessels of which 
thirty-six were owned in the colony. 

Hampered by the restrictive acts of an English parliament 
which, blind to its own interests, sought to limit and dwarf the 
growth of its foreign possessions the commerce of the Amer- 
ican colonies received again and again blows that would well- 
nigh have destroyed less energetic and less determined peoples. 
But the pioneers of America had come to stay, and by fair 



64 COLONIAL SHIPS AND SAILORS. 

means or by foul, for it must be admitted that the colonists 
sought by illegal practices to nullify the decrees of the mother 
country, its sea-trade grew apace. The ships of the traders 
and importers of colonial days were, says Mr. Mc Master, " to 
be seen at Surinam, at Hispaniola, at the West Indies, at the 
Canaries, in the waters of the Mediterranean, and in the waters 
of the North Sea. Their captains drove bargains in the 
Levant, and bartered rice and indigo for rum and molasses in 
Jamaica. They sold great stores of corn at Lisbon and 
Madrid, and every year brought home five thousand pistoles 
for the liquor and grain purchased by the Dutch. The New 
England fleet numbered six hundred sail. The trade of the 
mother country with her colonies gave employment to eleven 
hundred ships and twenty-nine thousand sailors." 

As for the American seamen of those colonial days we can 
gather some idea of their nature, their habits and their lives, 
from the old records that remain and the old stories that have 
come down to us. It was a time of courage and adventure. 
Those who came to a new world to try their fortunes must 
have possessed more of the bold and adventurous spirit than 
did the stay-at-homes; their sons and grandsons must have in- 
herited some of this bearing, and have attained in the broad, free 
life of this great wilderness of a country the clash and daring 
that a hard sea-life requires. This we know the colonial sailors 
had; and we know too that the great sea that washed the shores 
near which their homes were built gave careers to a large 
portion of the boldest and most enterprising part of the popu- 
lation. It was not alone the dare-devils like Captain Argall 
and Captain Oldham — at times disturbers and at times de- 
fenders of the peace of the colonies — whose courage and 
audacity we remember. We recall also among the mariners of 



COLONIAL SHIPS AND SAILORS. 



65 



the earliest days the plucky French sailor lad of Ribault's 
slaughtered Florida colony who, spared by the butcher Menendez 
because he could play the flute, stole " a little boate " from 
his captors and pushing out toward Drake's English fleet, play- 
ing and rowing alternately, gave that shrill welcome to " the 
English Dragon " that cost the Spaniards their fort and their 
treasure chest on the River of Dolphins ; we recall, too, those 
anxious sailors from " Captaine White, his shipp," who made 
the Carolina woods echo with the shrill notes of their trumpet 
call and the dear home 
songs of England, hop- 
ing, yet all in vain, to 
find by this means 
their exiled kinsman 
of the lost colony of 
Croatan ; we remem- 
ber the boastful ex- 
pedition of the " five 
gentlemen, four 
maryners and four- 
teen saylors," of New- 
port's Virginia Colony, that sailed away so gloriously up the 
James in a well-provisioned shallop to find the South Sea, 
and in less than a week came back again for all the world like 
the king of France's " forty thousand men " and quite as 
ingloriously. We remember also the stress and peril of the 
Sea Adventure, that ship of Sir Thomas Gates the Admiral, 
freighted with colonists for the Virginia enterprise, and how it 
was to the account of the storm and wreck as told by Master 
William Strachey, one of the passengers, that Shakespeare was 
afterward indebted for the motive of one of his greatest plays, 




SAILORS TRADING WITH THE INDIANS. 



66 COLONIAL SHLPS AND SALLORS. 

" The Tempest " ; we recall the double defiance which the 
supercargo Jacob Eelkens in the English ship William and 
Captain De Vries in his own yacht the Squirrel gave to the 
fussy and choleric little Dutch director as they sailed past his 
fort at the Manhattans; how one of the trusty New Haven 
sailors on Captain George Lamberton's trading ship refused, 
though persecuted and put in irons, to yield to the bribe of the 
Swedish governor on the Delaware and accuse his own captain 
of unlawful measures; how, again and again, the "good Captain 
William Peirce " in his ship Lion appeared just in the nick of 
time to re-provision the starving colonists at Plymouth and 
Boston ; how twenty Boston sailors sailed into " the Dutch- 
man's province " at the mouth of the Connecticut and tearing 
down the arms of Holland carved in derision on the self-same 
tree, in place of the shield of the States-General, a great, 
grinning face ; and how, all along the Atlantic seaboard from 
Pemaquid to Florida, the early colonial sailors learned the 
dangers of a deadly coast only by bitter experience, shipwreck 
and death, or risked their all in fishing or trading ventures 
only to lose it by pirates, by Indian attack, or by the ever- 
present dangers of the deep. The story of those far-off days 
is one of mingled loss and gain from which the element of 
hazard was never absent. 

And of the later colonial period, when all along the Atlantic 
coast the thirteen provinces of England were struggling toward 
position and independence, much could be written. With 
slowly developing strength and its attendant factors, trade and 
commerce, the America of the mid years of the eighteenth 
century was preparing for that career- foreshadowed in the 
early "seventies" in the now famous prophecy of Timothy 
D wight: — 



COLONIAL SHIPS AND SAILORS. 67 

" Here empire's last and brightest throne shall rise, 
And peace and right and freedom greet the skies, 
To morn's fair realms her trading ships shall sail 
Or lift their canvas to the evening gale; 
No dangers fright, no ills the course delay, 
'Tis virtue prompts, and God directs the way, 
And hark ! what strange, what solemn breaking strain 
Swells, wildly murmuring o'er the far, far main ? 
Down time's long lessening vale the notes decay, 
And lost in distant ages roll away." 

Leaving out of the account the warlike record of the Amer- 
ican seamen of the later colonial period we find the sailor on 
coaster and on merchant vessel displaying even then the quali- 
ties that have marked the successful sailors of every age and 
clime. They were brave, as when in 1 718, on board his little 
sloop, Maynard and his twelve Virginia sailors fought in hand- 
to-hand conflict and utterly defeated the terrible " Blackbeard " 
and his pirate crew; adventurous, as when in 1685, off the 
coast of La Plata, William Phips, the Boston ship-builder, 
bound upon what seemed to soberer men a wild-goose chase, 
found beneath the waters the wreck of the Spanish treasure- 
ship he had determined to discover and sailed away with a 
2reat store of bullion and of coin ; timorous, as when the 
Providence ship-master Adderly to whom Phips confided a part 
of the treasure, was so filled with fear lest he be robbed of his 
cargo and so turned with elation at his success, that he went 
crazy and died of insanity at Bermuda ; bold and determined, 
as when in 1744 certain New York fishermen, smarting at 
the recollection of their treatment by the English press-gang 
attacked and burnt the boats of an English frigate in New 
York harbor; humorous, even in their revenges, as when in 
1757, a kidnaped Boston sailor sprang from his hammock 
in an English man-o'-war and soundly thrashed the sneaking 



68 COLONIAL SHIPS AND SALLORS. 

commander thereof who had a way of spying in disguise among 
the common seamen of his ship ; unscrupulous, as when, again 
and again, dissatisfied with their trading ventures they would 
seize their ships and turn rovers and pirates; superstitious, as 
when, in 1656, certain Maryland sailors conceived that because 
their unseaworthy vessel had become leaky there must there- 
fore be a witch on board and so incontinently seized and hung 
poor goody Lee, one of their passengers, and flung her body 
into the sea; reckless, as when, in 1750, the hot-headed young 
Ricketts " of the Jerseys " put off from the wharf in New 
York harbor boldly flying his own " Birdgee flag" and sailed 
straight under the guns of the British man-o'-war Greyhound 
in direct defiance of the orders of the Lords of Trade com- 
manding that all colonial vessels should fly a certain "Jack" 
of their appointing " and none other." 

And so, in many a venture and on many a cruise, did the 
seamen of colonial days brave danger and death according to 
the varying fashion of their always fearless and sometimes way- 
ward natures. But it was in this very school of experience that 
they developed and built up that sterling if stubborn character 
that in later years was to prove in many a sea-fight and on many 
a dangerous cruise the courage, ability, fearlessness and hardi- 
hood of the successful American sailor. 






CHAPTER IV. 



BUCCANEERS, SMUGGLERS AND PIRATES. 




HERE is no service but has 
its share of lawlessness. And, 
firm as is our belief in these 
soberer nineteenth century 
days, in the wisdom of living 
up to the time-honored proverb 
that "honesty is the best 
policy " and to the sterner man- 
dates of the eighth and tenth 
commandments, there is still to be found amid the mixed reve- 
lations of the early days of our national story a picturesque- 
ness even if there can never be rightly discovered a justification 
in the devious ways of far too many captains, traders, mer- 
chants and sailors of colonial times. 

This elasticity of morals found its excuse not only in the 
ways and methods of so-called " Christian " governments, but 
in the traditions of still earlier days. From antiquity, even, the 
pirate and the smuggler had been prominent features in the 
world's story. Greece and Rome had grappled with them in 
many a Mediterranean sea-fight and all through mediaeval times 

they were now the enemies or now the courted allies of the 

6 9 



7 o BUCCANEERS, SMUGGLERS AND PIRATES. 

tyrant states of Europe — themselves little better than banded 
smugglers or confederated pirates. 

Singularly enough, piracy in America owes its origin to the 
Church. Spain, swooping down upon the Western world made 
the cross the symbol of possession even more than of proselytism. 
Backed by the religious edict or " bull " of a Spanish priest 
who happened to be the ruling pope at Rome, the king of 
Spain claimed the full proprietorship of America and dared 
assert his claims against the northern nations of Europe. 
France, England and the Netherlands at once protected. Dis- 
covery incited discovery and the hostile ships of the exploring 
nations pushed across the Atlantic bent on the double pur- 
pose of discovering new lands and defying the arrogance of 
Spain. England was especially aggressive and captains like 
Drake and Hawkins sailing under the commission of their sov- 
ereign counted every Spanish vessel a lawful prize and made 
their names the terror of the Spanish Main. 

" The Queen of England," declared the royal Elizabeth, 
herself the chief instigator and abettor of this international 
sea-feud, " cannot understand why her subjects, or those of any 
other European prince should be debarred from traffic in the 
West Indies. As she does not acknowledge the Spaniards to 
have any title to any portion of the New World by the dona- 
tion of the Bishop of Rome, so she knows no right they have 
to any places other than those of which they are in actual pos- 
session. Their having touched only here and there upon a 
coast, and given names to a few rivers and capes, are "such 
insignificant things as can in no way entitle them to a property 
in those parts, any further than where they have actually 
settled and continue to inhabit."- 

With the least shadow of authority as an excuse men will 



BUCCANEERS, SMUGGLERS AND PIRATES. 



7 1 



go to almost any length. That these legalized freebooters went 
at last to the length of a lawless and bloody piracy is the fault 
of those same Christian nations that, sanctioning them at first, 
sought in time, though almost ineffectually, to lay the storm 
they had raised. 

The first discoverers had little respect for the claims of 
rival discoverers ; the navigators who followed them and the 




THE HOME OF THE liUCCANEERS. 



explorers who succeeded the navigators, in the absorbing search 
for gold, merged all their lesser desires into that of a conqueror, 
and a conqueror respects nothing but the heavy hand of a still 
stronger power. Finally, the struggle for possession in the 
New World resolved itself into a death-grapple between Spain 
and her rivals of Northern Europe. And even this waxed 
strongest and fiercest between England and Spain — bitter and 



7 > BUCCANEERS, SMUGGLERS AND PIRATES. 

unrelenting foemen in all that men held dear in honor or sacred 
in religion. " Spanish bloodhounds and English mastiffs " 
came to the tug of war in many a sharp sea-fight upon the 
Spanish Main. The picture that Kingsley draws of one of 
these same sea-fights in his story of " Westward Ho ! " is not 
too realistic in its stirring lines : — 

" Now then ! " roared Amyas.- " Fire and with a will ! Have 
at her, archers : have at her, muskets all ! " and in an instant a 
storm of bar and chain shot, round and cannister, swept the 
Don from stem to stern, while through the white cloud of 
smoke the musket-balls and the still deadlier cloth-yard arrows 
whistled and rushed upon their venomous errand. Down went 
the steersman, and every soul who manned the poop. Down 
went the mizzen topmast, in went the stern windows and 
quarter galleries ; and as the smoke cleared away, the gorgeous 
painting of the Madre Dolorosa, with her heart full of seven 
swords, which in a gilded frame, bedizened the Spanish stern, 
was shivered in splinters ; while most glorious of all, the 
golden flag of Spain, which the last moment flaunted above 
their heads, hung trailing in the water. The ship, her tiller shot 
away, and her helmsman killed, staggered helplessly a moment, 
and then fell up into the wind. " Well done, men of Devon ! " 

shouted Amyas, as cheers rent the welkin They 

grappled ! And then began a fight most fierce and 

fell : the Spaniards according to their fashion, attempting to 
board ; the English, amid fierce shouts of ' God and the 
Queen!' 'God and St. George for England!' sweeping them 
back by showers of arrows and musket balls, thrusting them 
down with pikes, hurling grenades from the tops ; while the 
swivels on both sides poured their grape, and bar, and chain, 
and the great maindeck guns thundering muzzle to muzzle, 



BUCCANEERS, SMUGGLERS AND PIRATES. 73 

made both ships quiver and recoil, as they smashed the round 

shot through and through each other So it raged for 

an hour or more, till all arms were weary, and all tongues clove 

to the mouth Thrice the Spaniards clambered on 

board the Rose ; and thrice surged back before that deadly 

hail At last there was a lull in the wild storm. No 

shot was heard from the Spaniards' upper deck The 

Mad re Dolorosa was heeling fast over to leeward. Her masts 
were all sloping forward, swifter and swifter — the end thus 

was come ! The English cut away, and the Rose, 

released from the strain, shook her feathers on the wave-crest 

like a freed sea-gull, while all men held their breaths 

The Spaniard righted ; but only for a moment and there, under 
the flag of Spain, stood the tall captain, his left hand on the 

standard staff, his sword pointed in his right She 

gave one awful lunge forward and dived under the coming 
swell. Nothing but the point of her poop remained, and there 
still stood the stern and steadfast Don, cap-a-pie in his glisten- 
ing black armor, while over him the flag, which claimed the 
empire of both worlds, flaunted its gold aloft and upward in 

the glare of the tropic noon A wild figure sprang 

out of the mass of sailors who struggled amid the foam, and 
rushed upward at the Spaniard. It was Michael Heard. The 
Don plunged his sword in the old man's body ; but the hatchet 
gleamed, nevertheless ; down went the blade through headpiece 
and through head ; and as Heard sprung onward, bleeding but 
alive, the steel-clad corpse rattled down the deck into the 
surge. Two more strokes struck with the fury of a dying man, 
and the standard-staff was hewn through. Old Michael col- 
lected all his strength, hurled the flag far from the sinking ship, 
and then stood erect one moment and shouted ' God save Queen 



74 BUCCANEERS, SMUGGLERS AND PIRATES. 

Bess !'.... Another moment and the gulf had swallowed 
his victim and him and nothing remained of the Madre Dolo- 
rosa but a few floating spars, while a great awe fell upon all 
men, and a solemn silence." 

It was by such fierce sea-fights as this — stern, stubborn and 
to the death — that England gained and maintained for many a 
year her supremacy of the seas, when the bloody ways of Spain 
in those cruel days of religious jealousies and bitter hatreds 
wrought all men up to the white heat of indignation and 
revenge. That other picture in Kingsley's graphic narrative 
telling how the English sailors surprised and took the great 
Spanish galleon off the coast of New Grenada, has in it quite as 
much of fact as of fiction. There is, too, even more of stern 
reality than of the novelist's romance in the terrible oath of 
Amyas Leigh as on the deck of the conquered galleon he heard 
the horrible story of how the Inquisition did to death the 
English seamen captured on the Spanish Main : — 

" Harken to me, my masters all," he said, pale but stern of 
face, " and may God harken too and do so to me, and more also, 
if, as long as I have eyes to see a Spaniard, and hands to hew 
him down, I do any other thing than hunt down that accursed 
nation day and night, and avenge all the innocent blood which 
has been shed by them since the day in which King Ferdinand 
drove out the Moors ! Henceforth till I die, no quarter to a 
Spaniard ! " 

To show how, through suffering and balked revenge and 
. loss of all but life, this valiant sea-dog and hater of Spain learned 
even to forgive the nation against whom he had sworn so fear- 
ful an oath is by no means the least of the noble motives that 
mark this greatest of Kingsley's romances ; but the oath serves 
also to show the spirit that animated the foemen who in the 



BUCCANEERS, SMUGGLERS AND PIRATES. 75 

last quarter of the sixteenth century met in many a death 
grapple upon the Spanish Main. 

But though England was foremost in this never-flagging 
hostility her neighbors of Northern Europe, though rivals in 
other matters, were her aiders and abbetors in this hatred of 
Spain. "A sailor in those days," says Mr. Shaw, "was expert 
with his weapons, and was almost a fighting man by trade. 
Spanish monopolies were the pest of every port from Mexico 
to Cape Horn; and the seamen who sailed the Caribbean were 
filled with a natural hatred of everything Spanish." So it came 
to pass that English, French and Dutch sea-captains made com- 
mon cause against the cruisers and galleons of Spain and from 
this hostility sprung the Buccaneers.* 

" The pleasures of a roving life grew to have for these alert 
and aggressive seamen a greater attraction than did a sober 
mercantile venture to friendly ports while the monotony of 
the routine was," according to Mr. Shaw, " broken by occa- 
sional skirmishes organized and led by Spanish officials. Out 
of such conditions," he continues, " arose the Buccaneer, alter- 
nately sailor and hunter, even occasionally a planter — roving, 
bold, not overscrupulous and not unfrequently savage, with an in- 
tense detestation of the power and the representatives of Spain." 

It is a strange and altogether picturesque phase of American 
sailor-life that is furnished by the story of the rise and power 
of the Buccaneers. Banded together in a common purpose 
they became Americans all, sinking their several European 
nationalities in their mutual desires, and with something of the 
patriot in their uncompromising opposition to Spanish tyranny. 

* The smugglers of the Spanish Main were accustomed to provision their ships at the island of St. Domingo 
because of its abundance of wild cattle. The flesh of these cattle was preserved by a crude treatment of fire and 
smoke by the natives of the island in their " curing huts" or boitcans. The freebooters learning the process of 
"boucanning " from the natives finally received the name of " boucanniers " or " buccaneers." 



7 6 BUCCANEERS, SMUGGLERS AND PIRATES. 

But with each success they grew more hazardous. Thus was 
engendered a spirit of lawlessness until finally the Buccaneers 
lost the sturdy manliness of the sea-rover in the greed of the 
freebooter. For fully a century they held unquestioned power 
upon the Spanish Main — now the victors and now the van- 
quished in many a stubborn sea-fight. In time they combined 
their forces alike from politic motives and for mutual defence ; 
they rendezvoused in certain of the smaller West Indian islands, 
fortifying some and colonizing others, and became the main 
reliance of the rivals of Spain in attempts upon Spain's Amer- 
ican possessions. France, with their help, wrested the Tortugas 
from their Spanish masters; England, aided by them, conquered 
the Island of Jamaica. They have given a romantic, if bloody 
interest to every port and island on the Southern Seas from 
the capes of Florida to the mouth of the Amazon. At the 
height of their power (from 1671 to 1685) they were the undis- 
puted dictators of the Caribbean, the acknowledged scourge of 
the Spanish American trade and dominions ; and, crossing the 
isthmus, they made their name a terror along the Pacific coast 
from California to Chili. 

Their career was full of brilliant successes and questionable 
actions, in which chivalry and brutality, munificence and greed 
were strangely mixed. The great expedition of their greatest 
commander, Captain Henry Morgan the Welshman, by which 
in 1 67 1 with a fleet of thirty-nine vessels and a crew of two 
thousand men he conquered Panama and spread terror and 
death throughout the Spanish-American provinces was at once 
the most daring and the most important of the banded enter- 
prises of these Free Lances of the Southern Seas. Marauder 
and murderer though he was, Morgan was at once a shrewd and 
able leader and ended his eventful career in honor and position, 



BUCCANEERS, SMUGGLERS AND PIRATES. 79 

becoming — by favor of his backer and (so it was charged) his 
business partner King Charles the Second of England — the 
governor of an English province and owner of the title of 
"Sir" Henry Morgan. 

But such a continued reign of lawless and unlicensed power 
as was enjoyed by the Buccaneers was certain to fall at last. 
Public opinion and the better judgment of the very nations 
that upheld it were sure to work its ruin. The growth of a 
friendlier international feeling brought it into discredit. The 
courts of Europe grappled with the problem and finally by the 
peace of Ryswick in 1697, which changed so completely the 
whole status of colonial affairs in America, the confederacy of 
the Buccaneers was practically broken up and its scattered ele- 
ments fell to the next lower position in the descending scale of 
ocean crime — that of piracy. 

But, before we leave this picturesque era of the American 
pirate —for there was a time in the earliest days of the "ocean 
free-lance " when, as one author maintains, " the spirit of buc- 
caneering approached in some degree to the spirit of chivalry 
in point of adventure " — we may linger awhile over the picture 
which Kingsley has drawn for us of the manner and the valor 
of these "avengers" as they termed themselves. Gentle 
English parson though he was, he could see the picturesque 
where a less artistic eye could only see the prosaic — the bold 
criminality of a lawless band of thieves. How deftly has he 
turned our sterner sense of justice into an almost unlawful 
sympathy, in his sigh of " The Last Buccaneer " : — 



" Oh, England is a pleasant place for them that's rich and high, 
But England is a cruel place for such poor folks as T ; 
And such a port for mariners I ne'er shall see again 
As the pleasant Isle of Aves, beside the Spanish Main. 



8o BUCCANEERS, SMUGGLERS AND PIRATES. 

" There were forty craft in Aves that were both swift and stout, 
All furnished well with small arms and cannons round about; 
And a thousand men in Aves made laws so fair and free 
To choose their valiant captains and obey them cheerfully. 

" Thence we sailed against the Spaniard, with his hoards of plate and gold, 
Which he wrung with cruel tortures from the Indian folk of old ; 
Likewise the merchant captains, with hearts as hard as stone, 
Who flog men and keel-haul them, and starve them to the bone. 

" Oh, the palms grew high in Aves, and fruits that shone like gold. 
And the colibris and parrots they were gorgeous to behold ; 
And the negro maids of Aves from bondage fast did flee, 
To welcome gallant sailors, a-sweeping in from sea. 

" Oh, sweet it was in Aves to hear the landward breeze, 
A-swing with good tobacco in a net between the trees, 
With a negro lass to fan you, while you listened to the roar 
Of the breakers on the reef outside, that never touched the shore. 

"But Scripture saith, an ending to all fine things must be, 
So the king's ships sailed on Aves, and quite put down were we ; 
All day we fought like bull-dogs, but they burst the booms at night ; 
And I fled in a piragua, sore wounded, from the fight. 

" Nine days I floated starving, a negro lass beside, 

Till for all I tried to cheer her, the poor young thing she died ; 

But as I lay a-gasping a Bristol sail came by, 

And brought me home to England here, to beg until I die. 

" And now I'm old and going — I'm sure I don't know where; 
One comfort is the world's so hard, I can't be worse off there ; 
If I might be a sea-dove, I'd fly across the main, 
To the pleasant Isle of Aves to see it once again." 

The king's ships did indeed "sail on Aves" and many-an- 
other buccaneering port and the scattered bands of freebooters 
fleeing from the vengeance of their pursuers left the harried 
channels of the Spanish Main and distributed themselves along 
the entire American coasts, on either side the continent. 



BUCCANEERS, SMUGGLERS AND PIRATES. 81 

Driven to desperation by the change in their standing before 
the world they became pirates pure and simple and the glamour 
that had nimbused the buccaneer was lost in the brutality of 
the detested pirate. 

Scarcely a port on the Atlantic coast in the colonial days 
but felt alike the pest and the profit of piracy. For it must be 
admitted that in far too many instances the pirate had his 
backer in some highly-respectable gentleman of means and 
position in the colonies who, equally guilty with his outlawed 
partner, shared the profit but not the perils of sea-robbery, 
plunder and crime. 

There may, as has been shown, be conceded to the Bucca- 
neers a certain excuse for their depredations upon Spanish com- 
merce and even in their lawless acts may be found the basis of 
patriotism that had its place in those days of brutal inter- 
national feud ; but the spirit of chivalry that bound the bucca- 
neering bands in the earlier days of their illegal forays grad- 
ually disappeared as their brotherhood declined from fighters 
to freebooters and the independence and rude honor that had 
marked the days of their supremacy degenerated at last into 
unmitigated vice and brutality. 

Out of this condition sprung the pirate. Lawless, vindic- 
tive, greedy, cruel and savage the pirate of the past had not 
one of the redeeming traits of courage or lavish munificence 
that forms the inspiration of far too many of the stories and 
sketches that find an entrance into the literature for the young. 
The ideal pirate of the pages of fiction and the legends that 
gave these fictions life was a haughty, dark-browed, foreign- 
looking gentleman of great personal strength and with a per- 
sonal exterior combining ferocity, fearlessness and force. The 
real pirate was in fact a coward and a craven. Scarcely one of 



82 BUCCANEERS, SMUGGLERS AND PIRATES. 

the stories of fabulous wealth or princely gains accumulated by 
these salt-water burglars will bear investigation and a career 
of crime once begun as it took from the sailor who thus yielded 
to temptation all his manliness and all his better nature gave 
him in place of courage a blustering bravado and in lieu of the 
frankness of the seaman the craven brutality of the sea-thief. 

And yet as the Church was in a measure responsible for the 
buccaneers, society was responsible for the pirates. The exi- 
gencies of trade yielded but slow profits to the colonial mer- 
chants and shopkeepers whereas their investments in piracy 
permitted them to purchase in a low market and sell in a high 
one. " Piratic expeditions," declared King William of Eng- 
land in the year 1695 to the Earl of Bellomont, "are fitted out 
from the colonies of New England and Virginia; and even the 
Quakers of Pennsylvania afford a market for their robberies." 

Such, in fact, was the case. From Maine to Georgia every 
seaport town of the colonies was under the spell of the pirate. 
Newport, we are told, was reckoned as " a nest of corsairs " ; 
the little ports of the Long Island coast harbored many a pirati- 
cal captain who bought immunity from the English governors 
of New York by gifts and percentage. " The curse of pirates," 
says Mr. Lodge, "fell heavily upon Philadelphia. These out- 
laws brought trade and specie to the struggling colonists, whose 
virtue was not proof against the temptation. The pirate Evans," 
he declares, " owned land in Philadelphia, and the famous Black- 
beard traded in their shops; while even the family of Penn's 
deputy, Markham, was mixed up with these illicit dealings." 
Further to the south Annapolis and Baltimore knew all too 
intimately the wiles and ways of the seductive sea-thieves ; in 
North Carolina Captain Teach, the redoubtable " Blackbeard," 
had his headquarters; the secretary of the province was his 



BUCCANEERS, SMUGGLERS AND PIRATES. 



83 



ally and even the governor was corrupted ; the port of Charles- 
ton was a favorite trading port with the pirates of the coast, 
" where," says Mr. Lodge, "they were popular and well-received 
because they spent money, and brought thither their ill-gotten 
gains to enrich the colony." 

Around the names and fortunes of these lawless ocean rob- 




THE PIRATE OF ROMANCE. 



bers legend and romance have thrown a misty fascination. 
Their deeds and their daring have been magnified, their lives 
have been woven into song and story, their covetousness, bru- 
tality, cowardice and crime have spun themselves into heroics 
and lost all their repellent features in the atmosphere of excite- 
ment and mystery that has surrounded their memories. But 



84 BUCCANEERS, SMUGGLERS AND PIRATES. 

stripped of all this fanciful adorning the pirate of "ye olden 
time " was but a low-lived, wicked and unattractive man. Cap- 
tain William Kidd, greatest of all in name and renown, is now 
declared to have been in reality no pirate at all. His story is 
one of misery and failure from beginning to end. A New York 
merchant-captain with an hitherto honorable record, he sailed 
away in command of a piratical expedition against piracy. " By 
attacking the pirates," said King William to the Earl of Belle- 
mont, governor of the New York province, " we shall accom- 
plish a double object. We shall in the first place check their 
devastating operations, and we shall also fill our purses with 
the proceeds of the abundant spoil with which their ships are 
laden." With this questionable though kingly design as part 
of his sailing orders Kidd put to sea. A more dreary and less 
romantic voyage was never sailed. Unsuccessful from the very 
start Kidd's adventure ended in ignominy, disgrace and failure 
and his career had none of the brilliant exploits and none of 
the fabulous successes that have always been a part of his 
accepted story. The tales of buried booty that have marked 
the Atlantic coast with credulous treasure seekers digging for 
" Kidd's money " were all of them without foundation and his 
trial and execution were not for piracy but for the murder of 
a mutinous and insubordinate mate. There is every reason to 
believe that he died as a sort of scapegoat for certain high- 
placed and aristocrat partners in a scheme of plunder and a 
careful study of his case forces one to accept the opinion of 
Mr. Fernow who declares that " to-day that which was meted 
out to Kidd might hardly be called justice ; for it seems ques- 
tionable if he had ever been guilty of piracy." 

But there were hundreds of others who were even more 
guilty than was Kidd and richly deserved a similar fate. The 



BUCCANEERS, SMUGGLERS AND PIRATES. 85 

sea swarmed with these lawless characters and scarcely a voy- 
age was attempted in those closing years of the seventeenth 
century in which " capture by pirates " was not the greatest 
risk that the voyager or the passenger ran. 

But, though they were the terror of the seas, not one of 
these pirate captains did not lead a miserable and forlorn exist- 
ence as far removed from the exaggerated stories of daring, 
excitement and success as can well be conceived. Avery and 
Stede Bonnet, Teach or " Blackbeard," Hawkins and Pond, 
Phillips and Few and others whose names are less familiar, ran 
their careers of crime in partnership, often, with men of position 
and influence in the colonies. Their successes were in much 
less deeree than rumor has created for them and their ends in 
almost every instance were miserable and far from heroic. The 
piratical chapter in the story of the American sailor is one in 
which no lover of the sea and its dangers can take any pride 
and the possibility for its existence and long continuance is a 
sad commentary on the "crooked" business methods of "our 
honored ancestors." 

Piracy on the high seas was at last stamped out alike by 
public opinion and by official vigilance. But illicit trading on 
the seas was not so easily ended. Piracy degenerated into the 
third and lowest phase of sea-crime — smuggling, and the 
descendants of the chivalric buccaneers became at last little 
more than craven sneak-thieves of the ocean. 

For this again the State was largely responsible. The 
restrictions which England placed upon the commerce of its 
colonies were especially galling to a people whose sea-traffic 
was so full of promise and profit as was that of the coast-line 
colonies of America. In New England, in the middle of the 
eighteenth century, more people were engaged in ship-building 



86 



BUCCANEERS, SMUGGLERS AND PIRATES. 



and in navigation than in agriculture, and Massachusetts is said 
to have owned one vessel for every hundred of its inhabitants. 
When, therefore, Great Britain attempted by arbitrary laws to 
restrict the commerce of her American colonies decreeing by 
statute that nothing was to be allowed to be imported into a 
British " plantation " save in English-built vessels and by crews 

three fourths of which 
must be English the 
Americans not only pro- 
tested but proceeded to 
take matters into their 
own hands. Openly evad- 
ing or secretly resisting 
the laws of the mother 
country they " smuggled 
in " the goods they desired 
to possess without the pay- 
ment of the required duties 
and in direct defiance of 
the laws of England. 

This secret traffic was 
carried on in every 
Atlantic port. The colo- 
nists became, in fact, " a nation of law-breakers." 

" Nine tenths of their merchants," declares Mr. Wells,* "were 
smugglers. One quarter of all the signers of the Declaration 
of Independence were bred to commerce, to the command of 
ships and to contraband trade. Hancock, Trumbull (Brother 
Jonathan) and Hamilton were all known to be cognizant of or 
participants in contraband transactions or approved of them. 




A SMUGGLER. 



* See Chapter I of " Our Merchant Marine,'' by David A. Wells 



BUCCANEERS, SMUGGLERS AND PIRATES. S 7 

Hancock was the prince of contraband traders, and with John 
Adams as his counsel was appointed for trial before the 
Admiralty court in Boston, at the exact hour of the sheddino- 
of blood at Lexington, in a suit for five hundred thousand 
dollars penalties alleged to have been incurred by him as a 
smuggler." 

But out of flagrant misdoings sometimes spring great 
results. Smuggling, originally participated in by the few for 
the sole purpose of gain and as the direct descendant of a 
stamped-out piracy grew at last into one of the principal 
methods by which an armed people protested against tyranny. 

England's arbitrary laws by which she sought to cripple 
and restrict the native commerce of her colonies worked their 
own ruin by driving even the most loyal colonists into open 
violation of the law and were, in fact, one of the leading 
causes of the American Revolution. 

The buccaneers, the pirates and the smugglers of colonial 
days though they were the negative and darker side of the life 
of the early American seaman still played their part in the 
process of his natural strengthening and development. The 
" tangled skein of good and ill " that enters into the lives of 
nations as well as of individuals has its place in a very marked 
degree in the make-up of the sailor. Temptation to wrong- 
doing is always strongest where the hardships of life are most 
aggressively present. The sea and its risks, the circumscribed 
life on ship-board and the lawless natures that, in those earlier 
days, were always to be found in every ship's crew all tended to 
weaken integrity when temptation came to suggest and allure. 
Mutiny and intimidation were ever-present possibilities for 
which the sea-captain must be prepared. " You are ruining 
us all," said mutinous William Moore to Captain Kidd, when 



88 BUCCANEERS, SMUGGLERS AND PIRATES. 

that vacillating skipper hesitated to attack a Dutch East 
Indiaman. " You are keeping us in beggary and starvation. 
But for your whims we might all be prosperous and rich." 
And though the irate skipper forcibly reproved the abusive 
gunner with an all too-handy bucket, and 

"Murdered William Moore as I sailed, as I sailed," 

he still felt bound to consider and finally yielded to the clamors 
of his men. In like manner many a master was forced into 
piracy and smuggling by a lawless crew, or argued into it by 
a covetous partner on land. The risks that were run and the 
certainty of final detection and punishment counted for but 
little to the men whose daily lives were a constant hazard amid 
all the dangers and excitements of a treacherous and unstable 
ocean. 




CHAPTER V. 



COLONIAL SEA STRUGGLES. 




HE conflicting elements that 
entered into the occupation 
and colonization of the Ameri- 
can coasts made sea-struoorles 

OO 

inevitable. England, France, 
Holland and Spain endeavor- 
ing to achieve leadership alike 
in Europe and on the sea were 
in direct and constant antago- 
nism. Claiming each the right 
of occupation in the new world their war-vessels and their 
privateers were always on the lookout for hostile sail and the 
story of American colonization is punctuated with sea-fights 
and naval battles. 

In this school the American trader was early trained to a 
life of struggle. The colonial armadas sailing- under orders for 

OO o 

the capture of hostile settlements or the destruction of hostile 
fleets were often on the sea while the seaward-looking fort or 
the slender watch-tower, reared for the purpose of discover- 
ing the approach of the ships of the enemy were features of 
every seaport settlement. 

It was the fleet of the Spanish Menendez that brought dis- 
may and death to the French Huguenot colony on the Florida 

s 9 



9 o COLONIAL SEA STRUGGLES. 

sands ; in the fleet of the French commander, Gourges, came 
the avenging nemesis that slaughtered the Spanish colony of 
Menendez on that same Florida coast. It was the English 
captain Argall, half pirate, half soldier, who bore down in his 
little fleet upon the rival settlements to the north of Virginia 
pillaging and burning the huts of the French fishermen in 
Acadia and bullying the Dutch traders at the Manhattans. It 
was the Swedish captain Rysingh who sailing into the Delaware 
drove away the Dutch holders of Fort Casimir ; it was the 
Dutch fleet from New Amsterdam that not two years later 
sailed to the south and conquered the only attempt at Swedish 
colonization made in America. 

As colonization increased the disputes between the "parent" 
governments as to the boundaries and rights of occupation 
grew more fierce, but between none was the controversy more 
stubborn than between France and England. National feud 
was emphasized by personal quarrels. The dwellers on the 
American coast catching the spirit of resistance mingled po- 
litical rivalries with personal ventures and alike French and 
English privateers sailed out of colonial ports to worry the 
commerce of their rivals upon the high seas or to descend with 
murderous intent upon unprotected settlements and illy de- 
fended ports. The spirit of the seventeenth and eighteenth 
centuries was one of personal conflict. 

This era of antagonism though lawless and bloody proved 
also an excellent school for the sailor. It developed the fear- 
less spirit in men and where the sailor must also be the fighter 
it made him watchful and wary, acquainted him with all the 
risks and hazards of a precarious existence and laid the 
foundation for a hardy, intrepid and excellently drilled race of 
seamen. 



COLONIAL SEA STRUGGLES. 91 

The New England colonies, for the most part, furnished the 
sea-fighters for the side of England ; the Canadian ports sup- 
plied them for the cause of France. Castine and Pemaquid, 
on the broken Maine coast, strongly fortified by either nation 
were, according to Mr. Drake, " the mailed hands of each 
nationality, always clinched to strike." 

Gradually as colonization grew the individual fighters com- 
bined for some special or carefully-planned expedition of attack, 
and colonial fleets, sailing now to the north or now to the 
south, developed into armadas for the reduction of certain of 
the stronger sea-fortresses of France or of England. 

At first the feuds were personal rather than political. Such 
were the exploits of Sir Francis Drake against the poor little 
Spanish settlement on the River of Dolphins in 1586 ; of that 
unruly crew of Sir Humphrey Gilbert's ship, the Swallow, who 
in 1583 attacked, dismantled, robbed and "marooned" the crew 
of a French fishing vessel ; of such " colonials " as Captain 
Hewes, the doughty Cape Ann fisherman who dared defy the 
choleric Captain Miles Standish ; of the factious supercargo 
Eelkins who ran the wordy blockade of the " comic-opera " 
governor of Dutch New York, the Heer Van Twiller; of the 
blustering Captain Clayborne in the Chesapeake — Virginia 
against Maryland ; of Richard Ingle, of Holmes and Winthrop 
and rascally Captain Oldham. But at last out of these private 
quarrels came the more pretentious expeditions by sea for the 
purposes of siege, reduction and capture. 

First among these, in the order of time, was that authorized 
voyage of Captain Samuel Argall who, after his perfidious per- 
sonal attack on Mount Desert in 161 3 was, in that same year, 
dispatched by Governor Dale of the Virginia colony to com- 
plete his work of " punishing " the French. With three vessels 



92 COLONIAL SEA STRUGGLES. 

as his little fleet he sailed northward, ravaged and destroyed the 
settlements at Mount Desert and Saint Croix and then, cross- 
ing to Port Royal, completed his errand of plunder. Leaving 
the poor colonists to shift for themselves he sailed homeward 
to Virginia pluming himself mightily upon having done a great 
and glorious deed " for church and king." 

Next, in 1636, came the semi-naval expedition of the Massa- 
chusetts colonists against the Indians of Block Island and Con- 
necticut. This was under the command of grim old Governor 
Endicott — 

" A grave, strong man, who for good or ill 
Held his trust with an iron will." 

His trust in this matter was evidently "for ill," for it resulted 
in a bloody and relentless Indian war from which the struggling 
colonists suffered long and piteously. 

The feuds of the French governors in Acadia, La Tour and 
D'Aulnay — rivals alike in love and in dominion — renewed the 
trouble along the northeastern coast and led to a Yankee ex- 
pedition by sea hired by La Tour to help him against his rival. 
This sailed from Boston in 1644, but returned rather inglo- 
riously after destroying only a mill and some standing corn upon 
D'Aulnay's plantation. For this assault D'Aulnay took dire 
vengeance. Sailing with a flotilla and five hundred men against 
La Tour's fort at St. John he reduced it, notwithstanding its 
brave defence by the heroic Madame La Tour — known to 
romance as Constance of Acadia — who died, only a few weeks 
after her defeat, of shame and mortification over D'Aulnay's 
success. 

In 1654 there sailed from Nantasket, in Boston harbor, a 
Yankee armada for the subjugation of the French possessions 



COLONIAL SEA STRUGGLES. 



93 



in Maine. It consisted of four vessels and was under the com- 
mand of Major Robert Sedgwick and Captain John Leverett 
— "two as marked men," says Drake, "as could be found in 
New England." This little armada had first been designed for 
the reduction of the Dutch settlements at the Manhattans, but 
peace having been concluded between Holland and England 




UN THE WAY TO ACADIA. 



the Puritans, Mr. Drake declares, " with true thrift launched 
their armament against the unsuspecting mounseers of Penob- 
scot." 

This expedition resulted in the temporary possession of 
Acadia by the English. The country was restored to France 
by the treaty of Breda in 1668. But the success of this ex- 



9 4 COLONIAL SEA STRUGGLES. 

pedition inflamed the New England colonists with that insatia- 
ble desire for the possession of Canada and more especially of 
Acadia* that ended only with the reduction of Louisburg and 
the capitulation of Quebec. 

And now a new figure finds place in America's sea story — 
William Phips, the first native American sailor of note and 
renown. Born in 1651 on the rocky Maine sea coast near the 
mouth of the Kennebec the record of his adventurous life, 
almost from boyhood, reads more like a romance than sober 
history. One of the youngest children in a family of twenty- 
six, reared amid all the hardships and limitations of a frontiers- 
man's home in those old days of bitter struggle this illiterate 
shepherd boy and ship-builder's apprentice rose in less than 
twenty years to the foremost position in the American colonies. 
Gaining fame and fortune " by fishing for shipwrecked treasure 
among the rocks and shallows of the Spanish Main " he was 
knighted by his king, led the first Yankee armada against the 
French power in Canada and received by royal appointment 
the post of " Captain General and Governor-in-chief of the 
Province of Massachusetts Bay in New England " — a dominion 
extending from Lon£ Island Sound to the banks of the St. 
Lawrence. His life was full of adventure. Almost his first 
exploit was to rescue from Maine savages the fleeing fugitives 
of the Kennebec settlements and to bear them to a place of 
safety upon a ship that he himself had but just built. In the 
sharpest pressure of poverty he prophesied to his wife that he 
would yet obtain command of a king's ship and build for her 
" a fair brick house in the Green Lane of North Boston." 
And this he did within less than five years. 

* By Acadia is to be understood the section now embraced in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and the greater 
part of the State of Maine (east of the Kennebec). 



COLONIAL SEA STRUGGLES. 



95 



He had long dreamed of recovering from the sea the sunken 
treasure of the Spanish galleons that had gone down amid the 
wreck and disaster of the stormy Spanish Main. Following up 
certain reports that had reached him he was at last able to 
vaguely locate one of these treasure wrecks off the South Amer- 
ican port and thereupon boldly proceeded to England and laid 
his plans before the Admiralty Board. 

The Quixotic scheme of an unknown New England sea- 
captain, by some mysterious means (perhaps because of his 
very bluntness and audacity # ) secured attention and before the 
close of the year 1684 he was appointed to the command of the 
Rose Algier, a ship of eighteen guns with a crew of ninety-five 
men. 

The story of his treasure-hunt is remarkable. With the 
most meagre information as to the position of the wrecked 
galleon, with an unruly and mutinous crew, amid all the dan- 
gers of Spanish attack and capture, with repeated failures to 
hinder and dismay he nevertheless stuck to his work manfully, 
finally discovered the wreck and fished up after only three 
days' work, bullion and coin to the amount of three hundred 
thousand pounds, besides precious stones and other valuable 
freight. 

The partners in this remarkable enterprise took the lion's 
share in the returns and Phips after the accounts were all set- 
tled had as his portion of the prize only about sixteen thousand 
pounds and a gold cup for his wife. But King James gave him 
also the empty honor of knighthood and the promise of public 
position in England and this, in those days, was esteemed a 
just reward. Sir William, however, was loyal to his home-land. 

* " Possibly the king intrusted to him," says Dr. Ellis, " besides the search for the sunken treasure, some 
other business on the high seas of a sort not to be entered on papers." 



96 COLONIAL SEA STRUGGLES. 

Returning to New England he built the brick house in Boston 
that he had promised his wife and was appointed by the king 
High Sheriff of New England. 

In 1690 began the long series of European wars that lasted 
for nearly a century. They fell upon the colonies in America 
as border wars, as race wars and culminated finally in the suc- 
cessful struggle of the Revolution. King William's war, grow- 
ing out of the revolt against the Stuart rule in England in 
1688 and the occupation of the British throne by William of 
Holland, embroiled especially France and England and led to a 
struggle for colonial possessions in America. New England 
ached to attack Canada. Acadia as the nearest colony of 
France received the first blow. Its reduction was decreed by 
Massachusetts. 

On the twenty-second of March, 1690, the General Court 
appointed Sir William Phips to the chief command of an 
expedition "against Nova Scotia and L'Acadie " and " of the 
shipping and seamen employed therein." Soldiers and sailors 
were enlisted for the enterprise and on the twenty-eighth of 
April the Massachusetts " fleet," consisting of one frigate of 
forty guns, a sloop of sixteen and one of eight guns besides 
four smaller vessels sailed from Nantasket for the ports in 
Acadia. Seven hundred men were embarked on this fleet of 
invasion which had orders to " assault, kill and utterly extirpate 
the common enemy and to burn and demolish their fortifications 
and shipping." 

Acadia fell an easy prey to Sir William Phips, his seamen 
and his landsmen. Its coast-line was long, its defences few 
and imperfect. Port Royal (now Annapolis in Nova Scotia) 
its most important settlement was but poorly fortified. It 
yielded at the first assault and the entire Acadian coast from 



COLONIAL SEA STRUGGLES. 



97 



Port Royal to Penobscot was speedily subdued and became a 
possession of England. 

As to the "seamen and landsmen" attached to this first 
important expedition against Canada little is to be said in their 
favor beyond conceding to them bravery and determination. 
In manner and methods their conduct was quite within the 
line of that school of privateering and semi-piracy which largely 
governed the sea-struggle of their time. This expedition against 
Acadia was simply legalized plunder. The spoils of war were 
lawful property and many a New England home was enriched 
by the plundered possessions of Acadian firesides. As Mr. 
Bowen remarks "this doughty band seem to have plundered 
even the kitchens." 

The complete success of this first expedition inspired the 
English colonists to a second and still more daring enterprise. 
This was nothing short of the complete subjugation of Canada. 
France must be driven from the American continent. There 
were soldiers and sailors in plenty who would rally for such an 
endeavor, and the success of Phips in Acadia proved what 
united action on the part of the colonists could achieve in the 
larger field of Canada. This was the popular opinion and it 
was speedily acted upon. Governor Leisler of the province of 
New York was the chief instigator of the enterprise and a 
colonial congress — prophecy of the historic congress of a cen- 
tury later — summoned at his call determined upon union of 
action. A force of five thousand men was raised for the inva- 
sion overland, supplemented by the alliance of fifteen hundred 
braves of the Iroquois. Quebec was to be the chief point of 
attack. Sir William Phips was given command of the expe- 
dition by sea and in the month of August, 1690, a pretentious 
fleet of thirty-two "extemporized war-ships" and a force of 



9 8 COLONIAL SEA STRUGGLES. 

twenty-two hundred men — the largest colonial expedition yet 

attempted — sailed to the north from Nantasket, in Boston harbor. 

How much sound sense lies in that old line of Massinger's, — 

" Soar not too high to fall, but stoop to rise." 

Inflated with their minor successes the colonies thought to 
achieve great things. But they were not yet ready for union. 
Their counsels were not fraternal. Local jealousies prevented 
unity of action. The land forces, wasting their time on petty 
and personal quarrels, miserably failed in co-operation. Mon- 
treal which was to be their first and peculiar prey was not even 
invested. The army of the colonies melted away so completely 
in the Champlain woods that the spies of the French com- 
mander could not discover even a trace of the invaders and 
Governor Leisler's military administration though conceded to 
be both " vigorous and spirited "* was rendered ineffective by 
the bickerings and jealousies of his allies and subordinates. 

Deprived of the land support, the naval expedition under 
the command of Sir William Phips came to equal grief. In 
many respects this first important Yankee armada was a copy 
in miniature of its great Spanish prototype of a century before, 
when " Castile's black fleet " sailed northward for the conquest 
of England. 

Like that, this later armada was born of bigotry and greed. 
The destruction of the Romish power in Canada and the con- 
trol of the cod-fishery were its underlying motives. Prayers 
for its success, says Bancroft, " went up, morning and evening, 
from every hearth in New England." But this success was not 
to be. Lacking pilots who knew the devious ways of the St. 

* Beside the land forces the New York colony through the energy of Governor Leisler contributed three 
vessels to the Boston fleet. The largest of this naval contingent was a well-built ship carrying twenty guns and was 
the first man-of-war ever fitted out in the harbor of New York. While the Boston vessels came back bootyless the 
New York " squadron " brought back to that city several valuable prizes. 



COLONIAL SEA STRUGGLES. 101 

Lawrence channel, the fleet felt its way slowly up the broad 
river; the small-pox came as an ally to the French and even 
the elements rose to disturb and annoy. When at last Quebec 
was reached the French defences were found to have been 
thoroughly strengthened. Neither by a naval bombardment 
nor by a land attack was the flag of France to be dislodged 
from the embattled cliffs of Quebec, and the fiery Frontenac 
flung his contemptuous defiance in the face of the New 
England admiral. Disheartened and defeated Phips gave 
orders to retire and the fleet sailed homeward. A great 
storm arose to cripple and disperse it. 

Here again was the story of the Spanish Armada repeated. 
Only the wreck of an ambitious expedition reached Boston. 
One vessel was lost never to be heard of more. Another, 
grounding on Anticosti, lost fifty-four of its sixty men. The 
six remaining sailors suffered incredible hardships and only 
reached Boston after a voyage of fifty-four days in a little skiff. 
Still another vessel was destroyed by fire and four ships were 
blown so far from the coast that they did not reach Boston 
until six weeks after the return of the fleet and when they had 
long been given up as lost. 

The much-vaunted expedition was a failure and the colonists 
who had entered into it with so much of zeal now bewailed the 
financial burdens that this disaster entailed ; but after the self- 
ish manner of their day, they bewailed still more " this awful 
frown of God." It is safe to say however that the jubilant 
Frenchmen alons: the St. Lawrence held this same frown to be 
for them, instead, a merited and Divine smile. After all there is 
great truth in the words of Montaigne : People give the name 
of zeal to their propensity to mischief and violence, though 
it is not the cause but their interest that inflames them. 



102 COLONIAL SEA STRUGGLES. 

The discomfiture and chagrin that filled the Eastern col- 
onies after the disastrous return of Phips' armament led to 
much boasting; but until the year 1704 little real action, so far 
as naval attempts against Canada were concerned, is recorded. 
In that year Colonel Thomas Church of the Massachusetts 
colony headed an expedition against Port Royal, now again in 
French hands. It proved an utter failure. So too did a 
second expedition sent from Boston in 1 707 and it is asserted 
that the inglorious return of the invaders stirred even the staid 
and sober women of Boston-town to protests. " Why," one of 
them is reported to have exclaimed, when Captain Cyprian 
Southack and his " Province Galley " came sailing back, " our 
Cowards imagined that the Fort at Port Royal would fall before 
them like the walls of Jericho ! " And another severe and sar- 
castic matron replied " Why did not the Blockheads then stay 
out Seven Days to see ? What ail'd the Traitors to come away 
in Five Days' time after they got there ? " 

But failure is, we are told, " the highway to success." The 
Eastern colonists knew that there could be for them no safety 
until this "hornets' nest" in Nova Scotia was taken and in 
October, 1710, a final expedition sailed from Boston to Port 
Royal. This squadron consisted of six English and thirty col- 
onial vessels manned by seamen and soldiers from Massachu- 
setts, New Hampshire and Connecticut to whom were joined 
five hundred Royal Marines. This force meant business. So 
the French regarded it. The fortress at Port Royal was sur- 
rendered after a brief siege, the inhabitants in the vicinity were 
forced to take the oath of allegiance to the English Queen and 
that sovereign lady's name was given to the old French post 
which became thereafter and for all time Annapolis. 

As in the day of Sir William Phips, success again led to 



COLONIAL SEA STRUGGLES. 103 

-rashness. The fall of Port Royal awoke the old desire for all 
Canada. A strong memorial was addressed to the queen beg- 
ging her " in compassion to her plantations to send an arma- 
ment against Canada," and as a result there sailed from Boston 
harbor on the thirteenth of July, 171 1, a fleet of fifteen English 
war-vessels with forty transports and a following of colonial 
sail. Captain Cyprian Southack, whose " Province Galley " on 
its return from that second unsuccessful attempt on Port Royal 
had aroused the ire of the women of Boston, was to retrieve his 
honor by leading the van as the fleet sailed up the St. Lawrence. 
There were five regiments of Marlborough's veterans in the 
fleet and the entire force of seven thousand men, half regulars 
.and half provincials, was under the command of Admiral Sir 
Hovenden Walker. 

As before, also, a land force from the middle colonies — 
consisting of fifteen hundred men and eight hundred Iroquois 
allies — was to invade Canada from the Champlain wilderness 
and conquer Montreal. So sure of success were all concerned 
that the English minister of war declared that "at last you may 
depend upon our being masters of all North America." 

All bombast again. On the twenty-second of August the 
fleet feeling its way up the St. Lawrence was enveloped in a 
dense fog driven upon it by a strong east wind. The vessels 
•driven on the northward shore, struck, many of them, upon the 
Egg Island rocks and the morning sun looked down upon 
a disastrous night's work — the wreckage of eight vessels with 
eight hundred and eighty-four men drowned. The " great fleet 
invincible " turned its battered prows homeward in full retreat. 
Quebec was not even sighted. The land forces were with- 
drawn. Montreal was not attacked and once again a Yankee 
armada sailed homeward in the shadow of ignominious failure, 



io 4 COLONIAL SEA STRUGGLES. 

shipwreck and loss, while the English squadron that was to 
lead the fleet to victory returned at once to England. 

But while at the north England and France were snarling 
at each other across the bulwarks of a ragged and broken sea- 
coast, to the south England and Spain were glaring at each 
other across a strip of sand. Oglethorpe's Georgia colony 
founded in so much promise gave peculiar umbrage by its very 
success to the Spaniards of Florida and the West Indies. The 
" black privateers " of Spain worried the growing commerce of 
the English south and Governor Oglethorpe's unsuccessful 
expedition against St. Augustine in 1740 spurred the Spaniards 
of the West Indies to a colossal revenge. 

Orders were issued for the utter wiping out of the English 
colonies in Georgia and in the summer of 1742 a Spanish 
armada estimated to consist of fifty six sail and seven thousand 
men sailed from Havanna to execute the prescribed vengeance. 

It would seem as if expeditions of destruction conceived in 
wrath were never destined to succeed upon the coast line of the 
Western Atlantic. Not as in the north by the stupidity of 
pilots, the obstinacy of commanders and the crash of the 
aroused elements was the southern armada dispelled but by 
the tact, the ability, the generalship and the courage of one 
man — General James Oglethrope. With only eight hundred 
men at his command when the Spanish war-fleet appeared off 
Frederica on St. Simon's island he yet determined upon a 
desperate defence. 

Word came to him that fourteen vessels from the Spanish 
fleet had tacked across to Cumberland Island and were threaten- 
ing his fortification there. At once he put out with only three 
open "galleys" carrying men and ammunition to the relief 
of his sea-fort. With an intrepidity that appears almost fool- 



COLONIAL SEA STRUGGLES. 105 

hardy he pushed straight into the midst of the Spanish fleet. 
The over-timid Lieutenant Folsom who, so says the brave 
leader, "was to have supported me with the third and strongest 
boat quitted me in the fight and run into a river where he hid 
himself until the next day," but nothing daunted by this deser- 
tion the courageous Oglethorpe kept straight on, fought his way 
through the enemy, sank four of the fourteen Spanish vessels 
and relieved the sea-fort. The Spaniards were so taken aback 
by this display of English pluck that, so says the quaint report 
of the action, " the day after they run to sea and returned to 
St. Augustine and did not join their great fleet till after their 
grenadiers were beat by land." 

By such courage and dash as this Oglethorpe conducted the 
defence of his colony. He prevented the landing of the inva- 
ders at Frederica, turned the defeat at " Bloody Marsh " into a 
victory and beat off a stubborn attack by the Spanish galleys 
upon the fortification at Frederica. Indeed, when the galleys 
withdrew, he himself led a pursuit in boats hastily manned by 
his soldiers and followed the fleeing Spaniards under the very 
guns of their fleet. 

Utterly defeated by what Mr. Lodge well calls " as gallant 
fighting and shrewd generalship as the whole history of the 
American colonies can show " the Spaniards re-embarked in 
disorder and their great armada that was to utterly annihilate 
the English sailed back again to Cuba. 

The next year, embarking a small force upon a few vessels, 
Oglethorpe sailed to St. Augustine and awed the Spaniards of 
Florida into such complete submission that from that time for- 
ward until the day when, in 1763, Florida was ceded to Great 
Britain, they never dared raise a hand against their English 
neighbors. " The memory of the defence of St. Simon's 



io6 



COLONIAL SEA STRUGGLES. 



Island and the southern frontier is," says Mr. Jones, " one of 
the proudest in the annals of Georgia." 

The New England colonies, possessed by a desire for Canada 
that defeat could not weaken and disaster seemed only to whet, 
combined for another naval expedition against the possessions 
of France. To bigotry and greed was now added another 




BEKORK LOUISBURG. 



impelling influence — that of fear. A chain of French forts 
extended in a shrewdly-connected semicircle from the St. Law- 
rence to the Gulf of Mexico. Some day that semicircular 
encompassment might clinch itself into one decisive grip and 
crush within its grasp or thrust into the sea all the English 
that lay within the sweep of its iron fingers. 



COLONIAL SEA STRUGGLES. 107 

There was no question about it. Canada must become 
English or New England would become French. The feeling 
intensified with each new year. It burned fiercer by delay and 
finally burst into a crusade. In 1744 came " King George's 
War " in Europe and New England's opportunity. 

The strongest French post on the ocean border, if not in 
all Canada, was that of Louisburg on the island of Cape 
' Breton. Its situation was deemed impregnable. It had been 
called the Gibraltar of America. And vet against this strong- 
hold the undisciplined fishermen and farmers of New England 
determined to hurl themselves. " It seemed," says Colonel 
Higginson, " an enterprise as daring as that of Sir William 
Phips, and as hopeless." 

But it succeeded. Thirteen armed vessels carrying two 
hundred guns, with ninety transports and more than three 
thousand men rendezvoused at Can so, on the easterly end of 
Nova Scotia, in April, 1745, and prepared for the siege. 
William Pepperell, a New Hampshire merchant with but little 
knowledge of war, was commander. Captain Edward Tyng, a 
Boston sailor, had the direction of the fleet. 

On the last day of April, 1745, this undisciplined force of 
seamen and landsmen came in sight of the great fortress they 
were to storm. For six weeks it was besieged by land and sea. 
At last it capitulated. The motto given by Whitfield the 
Methodist preacher to the expedition : Nil desperaudum, Christo 
Duce! (Never despair, Christ leads you) gave the key-note to 
the effort and the victory. It was America's crusade, and the 
old crusading fervor blazed into final triumph. The gate to 
Canada was won and, as Bancroft says : " the strongest fortress 
of North America capitulated to an army of undisciplined 
New England mechanics and farmers and fishermen." 



io8 COLONIAL SEA STRUGGLES. 

The coil was tightening about the French. Backed by the 
genius of Pitt, who saw in the conquest of America the chief 
glory and strength of England, the colonies consolidated for 
action. The objections of the Duke of Bedford * to the con- 
quest of Canada were overruled ; the terror of French invasion 
was passed. For, with the scattering of D'Anville's fleet in 
1746 as it was sailing over-sea to the destruction of Boston, the 
last offensive move of France came to naught. Longfellow 
has told for us in pleasant rhyme the story of that last armada,t 
putting the record into the mouth of Mr. Thomas Prince, 
minister of the " Old South Church" in Boston : — 

" A fleet with flags arrayed 

Sailed from the port of Brest, 
And the admiral's ship displayed 

The signal : ' Steer southwest ! ' 
For this Admiral D'Anville 

1 1 .ul sworn by cross and crown 
To ravage with fire and steel 

Our helpless Boston Town. 

" There were rumors in the street, 

In the houses there was fear 
Of the coming of the fleet 

And the danger hovering near, 
And while from mouth to mouth 

Spread the tidings of dismay, 
I stood in the Old South 

Saying humbly : ' Let us pray ! 

* The Duke of Bedford, the head of the British Marine office, objected to the conquest of Canada by the 
American colonies because of " the independence it might create in those provinces when they shall see within 
themselves so great an army, possessed of so great a country bv right of conquest." 

t Mr. Charles C. Smith thus describes this French " armada" : " In June, 1746, a fleet of eleven ships of the 
line, twenty frigates, thirty transports and two fire-ships was dispatched for the destruction of Boston and the 
ravaging of New England. It was under command of Admiral D'Anville ; but the enterprise ended in disastrous 
failure. Contrary winds prevailed during the voyage, and on nearing the American coast a violent storm scattered 
the fleet, driving some of the ships back to France and others to the West Indies and wrecking some on Sable 
Island." D'Anville died of apoplexy. His successor in command, Vice-Admiral D'Estournelle, committed 
suicide. The small-pox wrought havoc among the crews, and the officer next in command after scuttling some of 
the ships returned to France without striking a single blow. A second French expedition dispatched the next year 
was attacked by the English off Cape Finisterre and driven off with great loss. 



COLONIAL SEA STRUGGLES. 109 

" ' O Lord ! we would not advise ; 

But if in thy Providence 
A tempest should arise 

To drive the French Fleet hence, 
And scatter it far and wide, 

Or sink it in the sea, 
We should be satisfied, 

And thine the glory be.' 

" This was the prayer I made, 

For my soul was all on flame; 
And even as I prayed 

The answering tempest came ; 
It came with a mighty power, 

Shaking the windows and walls, 
And tolling the bell in the tower, 

As it tolls at funerals. 

" The lightning suddenly 

Unsheathed its flaming sword ; 
And I cried : ' Stand still, and see 

The salvation of the Lord! ' 
The heavens were black with cloud, 

The sea was white with hail. 
And ever more fierce and loud 

Blew the October Gale. 

" The fleet it overtook, 

And the broad sails in the van 
Like the tents of Cushan shook 

Or the curtains of Midian. 
Down on the reeling decks 

Crashed the o'erwhelming seas ; 
Ah, never were there wrecks 

So pitiful as these ! 

" Like a potter's vessel broke 

The great ships of the line ; 
They were carried away in smoke, 

Or sank like lead in the brine. 
O Lord ! before thy path 

They vanished and ceased to be, 
When thou didst walk in wrath 

With thine horses through the sea." 



no COLONIAL SEA STRUGGLES. 

English help, at first extended grudgingly, was now by the 
energetic measures of Pitt unsparingly given. In 1758 Louis- 
burg (which the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748 had given 
back to France) was captured by a great fleet under Admiral 
Boscawen and a land force under General Amherst. The 
next year Quebec fell ; and as the ship of Admiral Saunders 
sailed down the broad St. Lawrence bearing homeward the 
dead body of the heroic Wolfe the last vestige of the French 
power in America that the brave Englishman had helped to 
break was blotted out in defeat and the day of colonial sea- 
strusrs'le was over forever. 



•J*£' 







CHAPTER VI. 



IN THE REVOLUTION. 




@f°n.e.S3 



AYS Samuel Smiles : " The 
sea has nursed the most 
valorous of men." The 
spirit of '76 created patriot- 
ism in America. Lands- 
men and seamen alike were 
to prove their mettle under 
the strain of a mighty im- 
pulse, and American seamen 
were to put to the test that 
valor which the risks of an 
ocean nurture along the Atlantic seaboard had given them. 
Heretofore, in time of stress and battle, they had relied too 
much upon the backing of English war-ships for success. 
Now, they were to contend against those very war-ships in the 
struggle for a free land and free homes. The Revolution had 
begun. 

Very early in the conflict it became apparent that as Eng- 
land's supplies must come from over-sea such damage as could 
be done to England's transports and even to her men-of-war 
would be the most direct blow at her power and her resources. 
Rhode Island, of all the colonies, was first to strike upon the 
seas, and it was from her chief port that Captain Abraham 



II2 IN THE REVOLUTION 

Whipple took out the first armed cruiser in July, 1775, duly- 
commissioned as a man-of-war by the legislature of Rhode 
Island. To Captain Whipple whose plucky reply to the British 
commander has become historic * has been acknowledged " the 
honor of firing the first gun in the naval service of the Revo- 
lution." But we have Dr. Hale as authority for the statement 
that even before Whipple's engagement the first naval battle 
had been -won by the sailors and fishermen of New Bedford. 
Scarcely a fortnight after the fight at Lexington, they attacked 
and captured in one of the harbors of Martha's Vineyard one 
of the prizes sent in by the Falcon sloop-of-war and fifteen 
prisoners. 

Following hard upon this exploit (on the twelfth of June 
next succeeding) came the capture of the king's sloop Mar- 
garetta and two transports by the sea-faring folk of Machias 
on the rocky Maine coast. The spirit of revolt was up ; and 
all along the Atlantic sea-board the instincts of a people — to 
whom because of long acquaintance with England's obnoxious 
methods smuggling had seemed a virtue and resistance a duty 
— found easy expression in open attacks upon the vessels of 
a king against whom they had at length determined to rebel. 

One by one the other colonies followed the lead of Rhode 
Island and commissioned war-vessels and privateers. The first 
real sounds of war that came to the ears of the continental 
congress assembled at Philadelphia were the echoing booms of 
the guns of the opposing vessels as the Pennsylvania flotilla 

* Whipple had in 1772 headed a force of enraged Providence sailors against an English man-of-war sent 
into Narragansett Bay to enforce certain tyrannical British laws. On a certain stormy night in June, the Providence 
sailors embarking in their open whale boats surrounded and" burned the offending vessel. Three years after Sir 
James Wallace, commanding the British frigate dispatched for the blockade of Providence, sent this message to 
Captain Whipple: "You Abraham Whipple on the 17th of June, 1772, burnt his Majesty's vessel the Gaspee, 
and I will hang you to the yard arm." To which courtesy Whipple replied: "To Sir James Wallace; Sir — 
Always catch a man before you hang him. Abraham Whipple." The plucky Rhode Islander was never caught 
and never hanged, but lived to capture many a British prize and to be called by courtesy " Commodore." 



IN THE REVOLUTION. „ 3 

drove the Roebuck and the Liverpool down the Delaware 
River. 

Washington, practical and far-seeing, was early impressed 
with the necessity for offensive action on the sea. On the 
second of September, 1775, he issued at Cambridge a commis- 
sion, as commander-in-chief of the colonial forces, to certain 
Massachusetts captains to use their vessels offensively against 
all British supply-ships that should attempt to enter the har- 
bor of Boston. His action was legalized by the Massachusetts 
colony and six vessels were at once commissioned for aggres- 
sive warfare on the high seas. 

Ships being furnished sailors were not lacking. From the 
ranks of his citizen soldiery stepped at the word sailors enough 
to man his impromptu fleet. Broughton and Selman, Marble- 
head captains both, wrought with incautious haste such havoc 
in Canadian waters that even a zealous Congress was forced to 
reprimands and restitutions. With better good fortune John 
Manly, another Marblehead captain, waylaid in his schooner, the 
Lee, the British brigantine Nancy as she entered Massachusetts 
Bay, and took from her such store of the enemy's sinews of war 
as to fill the beleagured British in Boston with dismay and to 
give to the Americans corresponding delight and impetus. In 
the little navy that the Congress, before the close of the year, 
ordered and equipped this doughty Captain Manly found speedy 
and important place and performed many a valorous deed for 
the patriot cause. 

This same continental navy, ordered by Congress at the 
close of the year 1775, deserves especial record here, for its 
thirteen ships of war were, says Dr. Hale, " the proper begin- 
ning of the navy of the United States." It is well to recall 
their names. They were the Washington, Raleigh, Hancock, 



ii 4 IN THE REVOLUTION. 

Randolph, Warren, Virginia, Trumbull, Effingham, Congress, 
Providence, Boston, Delaware and Montgomery. Before the 
close of the Revolution scarce one of all this valiant little fleet 
rode the waters as an American man-of-war. Fire and ship- 
wreck or the superior strength of the enemy had destroyed or 
captured them. But their memory should have grateful place 
in every American heart as the beginnings of that greater 
American navy that for a century thereafter upheld the honor 
of the stars and stripes on all the waters of the world. 

The obnoxious sea-laws of England had for so many years 
dulled the consciences of Americans to the real iniquity of 
illicit ways in trade that smuggling and privateering were re- 
garded rather as duty than as crime. When, therefore, the 
active service of the Revolution called for a practicable navy 
those followers of the sea who responded to the call preferred 
the irregular life of the undisciplined privateer to the petty 
despotism that hedged the man-o'-war's man. Nearly every one 
of the thirteen newly-declared " States " issued commissions 
both to men-of-war and to privateers. The continental con- 
gress did the same. But the privileges and perquisites of the 
privateer, proved altogether too alluring. The regularly-consti- 
tuted navies found enlistments but slow work whereas the prize- 
money offers of the privateer captains attracted many a hardy 
seaman and many an adventurous landsman. Indeed it is 
asserted that at the close of the war the regular naval service 
of the United States possessed but a scant supply of men and 
vessels. 

But what it lacked in men-of-war was amply compensated 
for by the privateers. Of these irregular war- vessels the sea- 
ports of the thirteen colonies furnished a great supply. They 
swarmed from Boston and from Newport, from Philadelphia and 



IN THE REVOLUTION. 



"5 



Baltimore and Charleston and, acting either in conjunction with 
the continental "navy " or upon their own promptings and de- 
sires, they dealt sturdy blows for Freedom and their ever-open 
lockers and pockets. How considerable was this latter result 
may be judged by the assertion of Dr. Hale : " It has been said 
and probably truly that New England, the home of the pri- 




RECRUITS FOR THE PRIVATEER. 



vateers, was never more prosperous than in the last years of the 
Revolution, so large were the profits made in privateering en- 
terprises." 

We are accustomed to save but little consideration to the 

O 

story of our navy during the Revolution esteeming it as a factor 
of but trifling value in the grand result of liberty. No mistake 



u6 IN THE REVOLUTION. 

was ever greater. The fifty war vessels and more than five 
hundred privateers fitted out by Congress and the " States " 
during the war wrought almost incalculable damage upon Eng- 
land's commerce. just how much in money this damage 
reached can never be reckoned, but it is a well-assured fact that 
the losses sustained by the commercial and manufacturing 
classes of England through the depredations of the American 
war-vessels formed one of the main reasons for the acknowl- 
edgment of independence at the close of the war. 

The service was rough and undisciplined. Not even the 
semi-naval experiences of the Canadian sea-forays could give 
the continental service that tyranny of discipline that is at once 
the necessity and the arrogance of every properly organized 
man-of-war. The show and panoply of the English war-ship 
had but little place on the American vessels. The familiarity 
of association that springs from the close companionship of 
fishing-smack and trading-vessel, breeds certain contempt of 
station; it is impatient of any assumption of authority and 
laughs at pompous commands that savor too strongly of the 
quarter-deck. In how far the fisheries of the North Atlantic 
served as a school for the early American navy it is perhaps 
impossible to determine, but it was from these rough and ready 
captors of the cod and the whale that the first vessels of the 
new republic drew her adventurous seamen. The hazardous 
life of the banks and of the coast gave to the men who followed 
the lead of such captains as Manly and Whipple and Hopkins 
their dash, their stubborn ignorance of defeat, their determina- 
tion, their bravery and their brawn. 

And the men of the South were not behind their brethren 
of the North. With less of the sea life and the sea men than the 
Northern colonies possessed, they still had a proportionately 



IN THE REVOLUTION. n 7 

large experience in the ways and struggles of a sailor's life. 
Wherever along the southern sea-board a little port looked off 
upon the wide Atlantic, from out its sun-lit harbor had, even 
before the days of revolution, gone many a vessel on errands of 
questionable trade and in open defiance of the laws of England. 
The old-time valor that had resisted Spanish encroachment and 
scuttled many a Spanish galleon on that historic main again 
asserted itself. The seaman who had already sailed as one in 
the crew of smuggler, pirate or honest sea-craft from the ports 
of Baltimore and of Charleston or the minor seaboard towns 
now signed his name to the shipping articles of the State or 
Government war-ship, or to the less conventional ones of the 
equally as acceptable privateer. In the annals of revolutionary 
endeavor the names of the men of Philadelphia, of Baltimore 
and of Charleston hold equal place with those of northern sea- 
ports. Upon the deck of the privateer, in the shrouds of the 
state war-ship or on board the more pretentious national cruiser 
northern and southern sailors proved their valor and their zeal. 
Not Massachusetts' state navy of thirty-four sail, nor Rhode 
Island's active and ever-ready home fleet did more valiant ser- 
vice than did the wary row-gall ies of the Delaware or Mary- 
land's plucky flotilla of state ships and " private armed vessels," 
Virginia's irregular "navy," or South Carolina's mingled flotilla 
of coaster, galley and launch. 

New Hampshire's privateer General Sullivan, Massachu- 
setts' cruiser Tyrannicide, Rhode Island's private vessel Gen- 
eral Washington, the Connecticut brig Defence, New York's 
queer little fleet made up of " schooners, sloops, row-gallies, and 
whale-boats," and other of the "colony ships" (such as the Ran- 
dolph of Philadelphia, the Defence of Maryland, and the 
armed schooner Peggy of South Carolina) all may stand, in the 



n8 IN THE REVOLUTION. 

absence of space for a more general enumeration, as the rep- 
resentatives of that long roll of gallant sea-craft that helped to 
make revolution successful — a roll that gives equal place to 
the clumsy whale-boat of the North and the odd-looking " row- 
galley "of the South, to the swift-sailing privateer and the more 
pretentious national war-ship. 

And the men who sailed the seas to fight under the flag of 
the new republic — what of them? They came from every 
section of the thirteen colonies, some trained to the ways of 
the sea, others, landsmen eager to sniff salt water, or to pocket 
unlimited prize-money. They manned the ropes, they reefed 
the white-winged sails, they pulled the clumsy flint-lock and 
wielded cutlass and boarding-pike with equal zeal and coolness, 
following the lead of commanders who felt that capture on 
the quarter-deck of a colonial cruiser meant for them a felon's 
trial and a pirate's fate. 

But though fighting in the shadow of this assurance they 
never faltered. The list of these leaders on the seas is a long 
and honorable one. The generals in the Revolutionary armies 
may have eclipsed in glory and fame the commanders in its ac- 
tive if erratic navy, but not one of the nation's earliest war- 
chiefs is more worthy our remembrance and esteem than are 
its valiant sea-fighters. Theirs is a roll of bravery inscribed 
with many a name that rings with the story of gallant endeavor 
and success. Williams and Biddle and Mugford, Read and 
Barry and Conyngham, Wickes and Hopkins and Robinson, 
Hudson and Hinman and Nicholson, Rathbun and Talbot and 
Barney — these are some of the best known in that list of 
heroes ; while last but not least' on this now famous roll we 
read the name of John Paul Jones! 

Of this most picturesque and most popular sea-fighter of the 



IN THE REVOLUTION. 119 

Revolution very much could be written. Much indeed has 
been written that would scarcely bear the test of historic fact. 
A daring but unscrupulous fighter, a zealous but hot-headed 
partisan, a bold but often an uncertain captain, John Paul Jones 
was neither the demi-god of the cheap romancers nor the bru- 
tal pirate of British legend. 

A Scotchman by birth and an American by choice and am- 
bition Jones entered eagerly into the struggle against England 
and at its very beginning sought service in the navy of the new 
republic. From his earliest boyhood he had been a sailor. Born 
in Scotland, he had at the age of twelve taken to the sea, de- 
serting for this adventurous life the home of his father — honest 
John Paul, the gardener of the Earl of Selkirk. From this 
time forward his life was filled with roving and adventure. By 
turns merchantman, smuggler and slaver in American ships, he 
developed into a skillful sailor, quitted the slave trade in disgust 
but rose through the sudden changes that marked the dubious 
sea-service of colonial days to be while yet a young man the 
captain of a swift West India trader. Falling heir to a Vir- 
ginia property he became a Southern planter and supplemented 
his old Scotch name of John Paul by the additional though 
certainly not less prosaic one of Jones. 

The Revolution roused him from his quiet life as a country 
gentleman and again he found himself on the sea. This time 
he was lieutenant of the cruiser Alfred, the little flag-ship of 
Esek Hopkins, first " commodore " of the new republic. Suc- 
ceeding, in less than five months of actual service, to the post 
of captain, Jones, in the year 1776, sailed the Providence, a 
cruiser of twelve guns, on a summer war-cruise from the Gut 
of Canso to the Island of Bermuda, captured sixteen prizes 
and leaped into renown as a popular hero. 



i2o IN THE REVOLUTION. 

In the autumn of 1776 he took the armed ship Mellish, 
freighted with supplies for Burgoyne's army, fought the frigate 
Milford and received in the next year the command of the 
cruiser Ranger. In this vessel he crossed the ocean and in 
April, 1778, descended for purposes of plunder upon the coasts 
of Scotland and England. It is one of the questionable phases 
in the career of this popular hero that his first descent for booty 
should have been upon the estates of that very Earl of Selkirk 
where he had first seen the light as the son of John Paul, the 
good Earl's gardener. There is however some satisfaction in 
the knowledge that this doughty marauder's conscience was 
sufficiently tender to cause him, when the booty of the mansion 
on St. Mary's Isle was sold at Brest, to purchase the family 
plate and return it to Lady Selkirk with a letter full of apolo- 
gies and regrets. 

Continuing his career of plunder with a boldness that was 
doubly intensified by the knowledge that he would be uncere- 
moniously strung up to the yard arm of the first English frigate 
that could capture " so vile a pirate," Jones dodged the English 
cruisers and raided the English coast with equal skill and in- 
trepidity. When brought to bay at last off the Irish coast by 
the English sloop-of-war Drake the dauntless " commodore " 
turned on his assailant and after an hour of sharp fighting so 
crippled and shattered her that, with forty of her crew killed or 
wounded, the Drake struck her colors and surrendered to the 
Yankee " pirate." Then Jones, grown still more bold by this 
success, circumnavigated Ireland, increased his list of prizes and 
sailed into the friendly harbor of Brest a greater hero than ever. 

There never was a time in the old days of international 
jealousy that France was not ready to extend aid and comfort 
to the enemies of England. She was never more ready than 




ON BOARD THE BONHOMME RICHARD.— "] HAVE NOT YET BEGUN TO FIGHT. ' 



IN THE REVOLUTION. 



123 



in this battle year of 1779. Revenge for the loss of Canada 
lent force to her " sympathy " with the colonies. She offered 
money, ships and men, and when Jones appeared at court the 
French government at once helped him fit out an expedition 
designed for the destruction of English commerce and flying 
the American colors. 

This Franco-American squadron was as oddly-composed as 
it was, apparently, insignificant. It comprised five vessels — 
the Alliance, an American-built vessel with a cashiered French 
captain as its commander, the Pallas, a French merchantman, 
hired for the expedition by friends of the enterprise, and two 
small privateers (the cutter Cerf and the brig Vengeance). 
These latter went "on their own hook" hoping more for 
plunder than for glory. The fifth and most important vessel 
of the squadron was the admiral's " flagship." This was a 
ramshackle and unseaworthy old Indiaman, formerly known as 
the Daras but rechristened by Jones, in compliment to his friend 
Franklin, the Bonhomme Richard — the " Poor Richard " of 
the homespun philosophy of that day. This " flag-ship " was a 
two-decked frigate carrying forty guns, armed and equipped in 
almost ruinous haste and presented to Captain Jones by the 
French government. 

The whole expedition was in fact little more than a business 
investment of a certain rich French banker who hoped for 
large profit in his share of prize-money. The crews of this 
rather shaky squadron were a curious mixture of all the odd 
and hard-looking specimens of sea-faring folk then to be found 
in a French sea-port. The captains and minor officers were 
inclined to be jealous and even insubordinate. The venture 
appears, in fact, to have been about as unpromising and dubious 
as could well be imagined. But the commander was a deter- 



i2 4 IN THE REVOLUTION. 

mined and daring man. He was " on his mettle." He felt that 
he had a record to make, upon which even the alliance of France 
and his own reputation might depend. He sailed out of the port 
of L'Orient determined to win. To such a spirit defeat is the 
last possibility. And so, out of the most unsatisfactory ele- 
ments, John Paul Jones achieved one of the most memorable 
and glorious victories in all the erratic sea-struggles of the 
American revolution. 

It was indeed a gallant encounter. Its story is well worth 
recital. Sailing across the restless North Sea came the Baltic 
Fleet of England — forty sail of merchantmen stretching out 
to the southward from under Flamborough Head and convoyed 
by two new and strong English war-ships — the Serapis, of 
forty-four guns, and the Countess of Scarborough, an armed 
ship of twenty six-pounders. Straight into this fleet dashed 
the Bonhomme Richard with the Pallas at its heels. The 
Alliance with its craven French captain and the two booty- 
seeking privateers steered clear of clanger. The merchantmen 
scurried away toward safe harbor. The Pallas occupied her- 
self with the Countess of Scarborough, and thus with the field 
clear to themselves the poor old Richard and the lordly Serapis 
engaged at once in what has been termed "one of the most 
remarkable naval duels in history." It was like a fight between 
a toothless old mastiff and a stout young bull-dog. At the very 
first broadside so many of the miserable guns on the lower 
deck of the Richard burst because of their poor metal that the 
men on such of the other lower-deck batteries as had not yet 
burst refused to work their pieces. 

Night fell on the fight. The two ships grappled. Captain 
Jones with his own hand made fast to the mizzen-mast of the 
Bonhomme Richard the ropes that hung from the bowsprit of 



IN THE REVOLUTION. 125 

the Serapis. With yards all entangled and with the hostile 
cannon actually touching muzzles the men of the Serapis 
rallied to board the Bonhomme Richard ; but when they saw 
in the uncertain, light the brave little Scotch-Yankee captain 
standing at the gang-way pike in hand and ready to receive 
them they fell back in dismay. 

The broadsides of the Serapis had already told. The 
Richard was in a bad way. Sundry eighteen-pound shot Had 
torn ugly holes through her side below the water-line. The 
lower-deck battery, as has been shown, had been abandoned. 
The battery of twelve-pounders on which Captain Jones placed 
his chief reliance had been utterly silenced and of all the forty 
guns only two spunky nine-pounders on the quarter-deck were 
available for service. There was a lull in the fight. "The 
Richard, ahoy ! " shouted the English captain Pearson from the 
deck of the Serapis, " have you struck your colors ? " And back 
came the reply of the plucky Yankee commodore in words that 
have become historic : " No ! I have not yet begun to fight ! " 

Then the battle raged again. One more nine-pounder was 
added to the two pieces on the quarter-deck. The three guns 
poured their double-headed shot, their grape and canister into 
the Serapis, the marksmen in the tops bravely seconded the 
fire of this little battery and so hot grew the bombardment that 
the deck of the Serapis was raked fore and aft with this iron 
storm. No man could stand against it. Through three long 
hours the battle raged. The lower-deck battery of the Serapis 
— all ten-pounders — stove in the side of the Richard. Some 
of the timid fellows cried for mercy. " Do you demand quar- 
ter ? " came the hail of the English captain. " No ! " thundered 
back the intrepid gardener's son, and at it they went again 
with redoubled fury. 



i 2 6 IN THE REVOLUTION. 

The mutinous French captain in the Alliance hovering on 
the skirts of the fight discharged a broadside full at the stern of 
the Richard. Again and again was this treachery repeated. The 
old ship was riddled. Fire burst out. One of the pumps was 
shot away. The leaks gained rapidly. The Richard seemed 
to be sinking. Again rose the cry for quarter, and a gunner 
ran to cut away the colors. But a shot from the Serapis carried 
away both the ensign staff and the gunner. The prisoners 
were set free, by some traitorous hand. But Captain Jones 
knew no such word as fail. In the face of absolute destruction 
he still fought on, drove the terrified prisoners to work at the 
pumps — and at last the crisis came. Some of the sailors on 
the main-yard of the Richard dropped their hand-grenades 
through the open hatchway of the Serapis, exploded a powder- 
chest and demoralized the British crew. Captain Jones himself 
aimed a doubled-headed shot straight at the enemy's mainmast, 
which stood out distinct and clear in the bright moonlight and 
the brighter glare of the burning shrouds. 

It was a telling shock. The mainmast of the Serapis 
shook, tottered and went by the board. Her firing slackened 
and as a final fusilade rang from the deck of the sinking 
Richard the British colors were struck and John Paul Jones 
was victor. 

The sequel to this savage sea-fight is soon told. The 
Countess of Scarborough had already surrendered to the Pallas. 
Both prizes were taken to a friendly Dutch port, but the poor 
old Richard, vanquished though a victor, could not be kept 
afloat beyond a few hours. Cut entirely to pieces between 
decks, with rudder and transoms gone, with quarters and coun- 
ter on the lower deck driven in, with all her lower-deck guns 
dismounted and the rotten timbers of the stern post almost torn 



IN THE REVOLUTION. 127 

away the decrepit old hulk slowly filled. The water rose to 
the lower deck and on the morning of the twenty-fifth of Sep- 
tember, says Captain Jones, " At a little after ten, I saw, with 
inexpressible grief, the last glimpse of the Bonhomme Richard." 
But the waters that closed over her rang with the shouts of 
victory. The forty merchantmen, to be sure, favored by the 
morning fog ran safely into port ; but the moral effect of the 
victory was as great as if they had been captured. It estab- 
lished the power of the American navy in European waters and 
gave eternal fame to the name of John Paul Jones. The treach- 
erous French captain of the Alliance only escaped his merited 
punishment of court-martial by a fit of insanity. Captain Pear- 
son, the British commander of the Serapis, was knighted by 
King George for his gallant defense of the English frigate, and 
it is said that when Jones heard of this honor, he remarked, 
" Well, if I ever meet the commodore again, I'll make a lord 
of him." 

This memorable victory, though the most notable naval bat- 
tle of the Revolution, may serve as a type of those other deter- 
mined and gallant sea-fights that helped to secure freedom for the 
American colonies. Other captains were fully as brave, other 
vessels as skillfully handled, other conflicts as stubbornly waged. 
Space will not permit the details, but from the first shot fired 
by O'Brien against the Margaretta, in 1775, to the last broad- 
side fired by Barney from the Hyder Ali in 1782, the story of 
the doings of those undisciplined " blue jackets of '76 " is re- 
plete with incidents of personal bravery, daring and skill that 
equal and sometimes surpass even the stirring episode of Jones' 
fight on the deck of the crippled and sinking Bonhomme 
Richard. 

The fire that burns in the stilted lines of the old song of 



128 IN THE REVOLUTION. 

that day in which was celebrated the Hyder Ali's victory over 
the General Monk could have been directed with equal force 
upon the gallant deeds of many another Yankee captain strik- 
ing for victory on the embattled waters : — 

Captain Barney there preparing, thus addressed his gallant crew : 

" Now, brave lads, be bold and daring, let your hearts be firm and true; 

This is a proud English cruiser, roving up and down the main ; 

We must fight her — must reduce her, though our deck be strew'd with slain. 

" Let who will be the survivor, we must conquer or must die ; 
We must take her up the river, whate'er comes of you and I. 
Though she shows most formidable, with her eighteen pointed nines, 
And her quarter clad in sable, let us balk her proud designs. 

" With four nine-pounders and four sixes, we will face that daring band ; 
Let no dangers damp your courage, nothing can the brave withstand. 
Fighting for your country's honor, now to gallant deeds aspire ; 
Helmsman, bear us down upon her ! Gunner, give the word to fire ! " 

Then, yard-arm and yard-arm meeting, straight began the dismal fray ; 
Cannon mouths, each other greeting, belch'd their smoky flames away. 
Soon the langrage, grape and chain-shot, that from Barney's cannon flew, 
Swept the Monk, and cleared each round-top, killed and wounded half her crew. 

Captain Rogers strove to rally — but they from their quarters fled, 
While the roaring Hyder Ali covered o'er his decks the dead. 
When from tops their dead men tumbled, and the streams of blood did flow, 
Then their proudest hopes were humbled by their brave inferior foe. 

All aghast and all confounded, they beheld their champions fall ; 
And their captain sorely wounded, bade them quick for quarter call. 
Then the Monk's proud flag descended, and her cannons ceased to roar ; 
By her crew no more defended, she confess'd the contest o'er. 

It must not be supposed, however, that all the men who 
fought upon the seas beneath the banner of the new republic 
were of this heroic mold, or that all who lent their aid or 
joined their fortunes to the infant navy of the United States 



IN THE REVOLUTION. 



129 



were actuated solely by patriotic motives. It is a sad truth, too 
often and too lightly passed over by history, that patriots are 
sometimes venal and heroes unheroic. The " gallant tar" and 
the " bold sea-dogs " of Revolutionary days whose deeds form 
so prominent a feature in the stirring sea-songs of Philip Fren- 
eau and other song-singers of the Revolution were often far 
from gallant and sometimes not even bold. 

Too many of those early American sailors were led into the 
struggle rather by hope of plunder and. prize-money than by 
thoughts of freedom and glory. We have the assurance of 
John Paul Jones himself that many of his men on board the 
Bonhomme Richard were mutinous, timid and even cowardly. 
Many, he says, " skulked below." Three at least of his under- 
officers were " cowardly and treacherous." Only the dominant 
courage and energy of the gallant commander and the fighting 
qualities of a portion of his crew brought victory out of defeat. 
And his experience was that of other often dispirited command- 
ers. This lack of patriotism, indeed, affected the quarter-deck 
quite as much as the forecastle. It was clue largely to the 
chaotic condition of the service and the still more mixed char- 
acter and nationalities of the crews engaged. Long before the 
war was over Congress learned, so we are assured, " the danger 
of entrusting seamen of one nation to a commander of another." 
It was after'all the minority of the home-born sailors of America 
whose vigor and determination, nurtured among the necessities 
and hardships of the fisheries and coast-trading life, stood stead- 
fast amid discouragement and defeat and helped to give, at last, 
liberty to a nation. 

But, in spite of these qualifying elements — discouragements, 
indeed, which every nation has at some time experienced — the 
record of the navy of the United States during its era of revolt 



i 3 o 



IN THE REVOLUTION 



glows with examples of daring and heroism. It was Manly of 
Marblehead who, by his capture of a British brigantine laden 
with military stores, gave material aid to the poorly-equipped 
camp about Boston. It was Mugford, another Marblehead 




HELP FROM FRANCE. 



captain, who, smarting under certain compromising charges, 
dashed out in sight of the 'enemy's fleet and, in his little cruiser 
of only fifty tons, boldly assaulted and captured a British ship 
of three hundred tons and carried his prize into Boston, almost 



IN THE REVOLUTION 131 

under the guns of the English squadron. It was this same 
Captain Mugford who, when his prize had been safely delivered, 
again put out to sea, and being discovered by the now watchful 
enemy was attacked by thirteen boats from the British fleet. 
By desperate fighting the enemy was at last repelled, but the 
intrepid captain fell in the fight, shouting as his last command : 
" I am a dead man, but you can beat them. Don't give up the 
vessel." 

It was Oliver Read, of Rhode Island, who, with other brave 
men, escaped from one of the dreadful Jersey prison-ships by 
springing into a boat alongside filled with British sailors. Over- 
powering them Read mastered the boat and made his way back 
to Rhode Island, shipped at once for offensive service and 
captured a British vessel commanded by the very same Tory 
captain who had treacherously sent him to the Jersey prison- 
ship. It was Seth Harding and Samuel Smedley who, with 
their little fleet of four schooners and a brig, captured off Cape 
Cod, after the sharpest fighting, three armed English transports 
and five hundred prisoners. 

It was Lambert Wickes, one of the earliest of our naval 
captains, who took the first American cruiser across the Atlan- 
tic, carried Franklin, the first American ambassador, to France, 
spread havoc among the English shipping on the Irish Chan- 
nel and in the Bay of Biscay, and, sailing homeward, went down 
in shipwreck, with all his crew, off the rocky coast of Newfound- 
land. It was Gustavus Conyngham who, in his clumsy lugger 
the Surprise, so annoyed and terrified the English marine by 
his rapid and unexpected movements, that he was hunted down 
as a pirate, but so skillfully eluded pursuit that England pro- 
tested to France for harboring so fell a pest and compelled that 
country to send the bold privateer a-packing. Whereupon the 



i 3 2 IN THE REVOLUTION. 

daring Conyngham boldly put his lugger into an English port, 
refitted and victualed her there and, sallying out again, contin- 
ued his victorious cruise. 

In like manner it was the crew of the little cruiser Dolphin, 
the first American vessel to bear the United States flag in an 
ocean victory — who recaptured their own ship after she had 
been placed in charge of a prize crew; it was the crew of the 
privateer Ranger who, after a two hours' fight with a British 
war-brig, boarded her when victory seemed impossible and won 
her in a hand-to-hand fight ; it was young Nicholas Biddle, a 
brave and daring commander, who, in the Andrea Doria, took 
so many British prizes off the New England coast, that he 
reached port with only five of his original crew ; it was Captain 
Abraham Whipple who, as shrewd as he was daring, disguised 
his own vessel and, entering a convoy of English West India- 
men, for ten successive nights boarded and captured a ship a 
night and took eight of his prizes safely into Boston harbor. 

The list could be largely extended. Of course American 
vessels fell a prey to British captors, but the honors in the 
struggle rested with the seamen of the new republic. Success 
however lay rather with the smaller craft and the free privateers 
than with the naval vessels. The national cruisers fared badly. 
At the close of the Revolution very few — only three in fact — 
remained as the basis for a new navy. But it was the destruct- 
ive work of the commissioned and non-commissioned vessels in 
the service of the revolted colonies that helped swell the cry for 
peace that was raised in England after the French alliance and 
the repeated successes of the American arms. The courage of 
the American sailor, proved in many a stubborn sea-fight, 
showed that the will of a people determined to be free was not 
to be thwarted by British bayonets nor conquered by British 



IN THE REVOLUTION. 



133 



broadsides. The pluck and endurance that could wrest a live- 
lihood from a stormy and forbidding ocean asserted themselves 
in a struggle for free coasts, free harbors and free homes. The 
American sailor, quite as much as the American statesman and 
the American soldier, in the crash of battle and on decks slip- 
pery with blood proved his claim to his birthright in the title- 
deeds of American freedom. 




CHAPTER VII. 



A RISING POWER. 




HE prestige of success is 
inspiring. At the close of 
the Revolution the Repub- 
lic of the United States of 
America seemed scarcely 
in a condition to suggest 
strength, prosperity or 
ability to go alone. And 
yet the very fact that a con- 
federacy of thirteen poverty- 
stricken colonies had suc- 
cessfully withstood the power and historic invincibleness of the 
British nation was of itself sufficient to give inspiration to 
the people and start the tide of European emigration in a 
westerly direction. 

The new nation grew in numbers and in strength. De- 
spite its trials from over-zealous patriots and would-be leaders, 
despite its load of debt, its yet uncertain federal union, its 
questionable standing among foreign nations and in foreig-n 
ports and the even more serious question as to its own future 
the American Republic girded itself for its struggle for place 
and recognition among the nations of the earth. Trade revived. 

134 



A RISING POWER. 



*35 



slowly; commerce as slowly expanded and the American sailor 
relieved from the dangerous demands of war betook himself to 
the only less dangerous pursuit of "following the sea," sailing 
under the flag of a new maritime service. 

That such a service was at first domestic rather than inter- 
national is scarcely to be wondered at. American commerce 
could venture abroad but at great hazard, for the sea was yet 
safe highway only to the strongest nations and the " banner of 
the free " had but the slightest show of national authority and 
national protection at its back. England was still the mistress 
of the seas, and England's statesmen had little faith in the 
ability of the " United States of America " to long maintain its 
high-sounding name. European nations, therefore, were slow 
to enter into commercial relations with what might far too soon 
prove to be no nation at all, and among the citizens of the 
republic themselves, for all their valorous boastings, there was 
doubting, confusion and great anxiety as to the future. 

But there were some hopeful ones with sufficient faith in 
the future to assume certain risks. In the year 1784, less than 
four months after the surrender at Yorktown, the ship Empress 
sailed from the port of New York to distant China, and after 
a voyage of fifteen months brought back almost the first re- 
ports of that oriental fairy-land which, until then, had been 
scarcely better known to Americans than had the fabled and 
mysterious Cathay to the earlier navigators. 

The voyage of the Empress led to other and similar enter- 
prises. The New England merchants, harassed in European 
waters, determined to trade for their tea and their silks with 
China direct. In 1785 a second vessel bore the stars and 
stripes into Chinese ports and before the close of 1787 five 
ships had sailed for the " China seas." In the search for ex- 



136 A RISING POWER. 

changeable commodities with the Chinese merchants two Bos- 
ton ships — the Columbia and the Washington — ■ doubled Cape 
Horn in January, 1788, collected a cargo of furs on the North 
Pacific coast and shipped this to Canton in the Columbia. This 
venture proved successful and on the tenth of August, 1790, 
Captain Robert Gray brought back the Columbia to Boston 
Harbor with a cargo of tea — "of all Americans the first to 
carry the United States flag around the world." 

The next year, Captain Gray was again sailing the Pacific 
in the Columbia and, coasting along its northern shore-line for 
another cargo of furs, discovered the magnificent river that now 
bears the name of his gallant ship and " established the first 
claim of the United States to the soil of Oregon." 

Such distant ventures, however, were for years the excep- 
tion. The unfriendliness of the maritime powers and the an- 
tagonistic relations toward each other of the States themselves 
blocked the progress of a waiting commerce. There were 
quarrels and wranglings over the methods of " regulating trade." 
The commerce of the country was at the mercy of England, of 
France and of Spain. " Behind the Pillars of Hercules," says 
Mc Master, "the Barbary corsairs were believed to lie in wait 
for American merchantmen." Danger and disaster stared in 
the face every American merchant who dared risk a foreign 
venture and their vessels were employed rather in the slighter 
exigencies of domestic commerce than in the almost certain 
wreck of foreign trade. 

But, where men are determined and energetic, obstacles can- 
not forever remain insurmountable. America had vast resources 
of her own, and trade was certain to regulate itself, though 
nations were unfriendly and fellow-countrymen barred the way 
with clog and hinderance. Despite the controversy over im- 



A RISING POWER. 137 

posts, and non-imposts, in the face, even, of conflicting and dis- 
astrous State regulation and disastrous rares of duty in foreign 
ports, trade grew in volume and extent. The stars and stripes 
first entered a British port at the masthead of a Nantucket 
whaler, laden with oil ; and, little by little, the pluck and push 
of American sailors carried that flag into the ports of other 
powers and taught them to respect and welcome it. 

The tonnasre of the mercantile marine en^a^ed in foreign 
trade steadily increased. In the year 1789, at the time of the 
formation of the Constitution, this registered carrying capacity 
was 123,893 tons; in 1797 it had risen to 597,777 tons; in 1807 
it had grown to 848,307 tons. And this growth was in spite 
of foreign restrictions and of a vacillating home policy. 

All this meant determination, energy and courage. The 
continuous European quarrels proved America's opportunity. 
Napoleon's mighty ambitions created American commerce. 
The carrying-trade in American vessels rapidly developed. 
Better ships were built each year. Yankee energy and Yankee 
seamanship struggled toward the lead. Sailors were allowed a 
share in far-away risks, and the sea, as a field for adventure 
and for profit, recommended itself strongly to ambitious lads. 
Bright young fellows rose quickly to command. The captain 
of a Salem trading-ship, off on a nineteen months' cruise to the 
Cape of Good Hope and the Isles of France and Bourbon in 
1792, was but nineteen years old, his chief mate had barely 
reached that age, his second mate had but just passed his eigh- 
teenth birthday. And yet these boys succeeded so well in their 
important trust that the merchant who owned the ship sent 
them out again and again, and proudly boasted of the achieve- 
ments of "his boys." 

And the crews of those rough-and-ready days were no less 



i38 



A RISING POWER. 



efficient. Every sailor of them all hoped at some day to be 
either East India merchant or captain. Many of them were as 
amply able to navigate their ships as were their captains. " When 




GETTING READY FOR SEA. 



a captain was asked at Manila," says Mr. Bachelor, " how he 
contrived to find his way in the teeth of a northeast monsoon 
by mere dead-reckoning, he replied that he had a crew of 
twelve men any one of whom could take and work a lunar ob- 



A RISING POWER. 



*39 



servation as well, for all practical purposes, as Sir Isaac Newton 
himself." 

To the pluck and ability of the seamen of that period Mr. 
Roosevelt, too, bears testimony : " There was no better seaman 
in the world," he says, " than American Jack ; he had been bred 
to his work from infancy, and had been off in a fishing dory 
almost as soon as he could walk. When he grew older he 
shipped on a merchant-man or whaler, and in those warlike 
times, when our large merchant-marine was compelled to rely 
pretty much on itself for protection, each craft had to be well 
handled ; all who were not were soon weeded out by a process 
of natural selection, of which the agents were French picaroons, 
Spanish buccaneers, and Malay pirates. It was a rough school, 
but it taught Jack to be both skillful and self-reliant." 

It was, indeed, scarcely possible for the American sailor to 
be otherwise. Schooled by his Revolutionary experiences to a 
familiarity with a life of daring and adventure, bred among 
scenes and surroundings that made him at once fearless, am- 
bitious and self-reliant, he was ready, in spite of foreign extor- 
tions and domestic bickerings, to run all risks and to brave all 
dangers for the sake of present possibilities and future profits. 
All along the seaboard the ports and harbors of his home-land 
offered him opportunities for his hardy calling. Portsmouth 
and Marblehead, Salem and Boston, Nantucket, Newport and 
New Bedford sent, each year, increasing fleets to the Indies or 
upon promising and productive whaling voyages. From the 
richer ports of New York and Philadelphia trading-ships sailed 
to all parts of the world, Baltimore dispatched many a swift- 
sailing " clipper " into French and German harbors, while from 
the lesser Atlantic ports sailed many a smart craft on ventures 
in the home-coasting trade. 



i 4 o A RISING POWER. 

It was a wonderful school for testing the mettle of men. 
The son of the wealthy merchant and his promising young clerk 
were both bred to a practical knowledge of the ways of foreign 
commerce and the risks of the sea before the mast or in the cabin 
of the ships of the " house." Along New England's broken 
sea-board few lads arrived at manhood ignorant of the stirring 
experiences that attended a voyage to the " Banks." " Long 
before a lad could nib a quill, or make a pot-hook, or read half 
the precepts his primer contained," says Mr. McMaster, "he 
knew the name of every brace and stay, every sail and part of 
a Great Banker and a chebacco, all the nautical terms, what 
line and hook should be used for catching halibut, and what 
for mackerel and cod. ... By the time he had seen his 
tenth birthday he was old enough not to be seasick, not to cry 
during a storm at sea, and to be of some use about a ship, and 
went on his first trip to the Banks." 

All along that hazardous coast, too, from Newfoundland to 
Montauk, cruised the watchful whalers, for the great spermaceti 
had not yet been driven far a-sea, and it was one of the legends 
of the Long Island ports that in those days of home whaling, 
" no man could marry till he had struck his whale." 

" Wherever an American seaman went," says Mr. Roose- 
velt, "he had not only to contend with all the legitimate perils 
of the sea, but he had also to regard almost every stranger as a 
foe. Whether this foe called himself pirate or privateer mat- 
tered but little. French, Spaniards, Algerines, Malays — from 
all alike our commerce suffered, and against all, our merchants 
were forced to defend themselves." 

The Algerine corsair called into being the American navy ; 
the French republican first tested its strength. Of all the 
strange anomalies of history no one is stranger than this spec- 



A RISING POWER. 141 

tacle of a barbarous nation of illiterate pagans holding at call, 
like one of its own bashaws, the whole civilized world. And yet 
such was the fact. That group of North African nations known 
as " the Barbary Powers " — Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers and Mo- 
rocco — were literally the rulers of the Mediterranean. Fierce, 
lazy, cruel and avaricious this nest of Moorish pirates preyed 
upon the commerce of that great land-locked sea and demanded 
tribute of all the trading nations. England, Holland, Sweden, 
Spain, Portugal, France and Germany supplied the corsairs 
with ships and naval supplies. Indeed, as Mr. McMaster re- 
marks, " the idle Moors, with great shrewdness, obtained from 
one half of Christendom ships which they forced the other half 
to keep in good repair." 

The coming of the American flag into Mediterranean ports 
suggested to these bandits of the sea a new source for tribute. 
The Dey of Algiers learned that this new nation across the 
western ocean had merchant ships but no cruisers and forthwith 
proceeded to waylay its vessels and exact the customary tribute 
from the American nation as its only relief from slavery and 
spoliation. One after another American vessels fell a prey to 
Algerine corsairs, their cargoes were stolen, their crews sold 
into slavery. The protection of American commerce was urged 
upon Congress and out of this demand grew the armed vessels 
that were the beginnings of the American navy. 

The keels of six frigates were laid at once. At Boston the 
Constitution of forty-four guns ; at New York the President of 
forty-four guns ; at Philadelphia the United States of forty-four 
guns ; at Portsmouth in Virginia the Chesapeake of thirty-eight 
guns ; at Baltimore the Constellation of thirty-eight guns ; and 
at Portsmouth in New Hampshire the Congress of thirty-eight 
guns — these with two hundred and fifty tons of balls and three 



142 A RISING POWER. 

hundred and fifty thousand dollars' worth of muskets, small 
arms and stores were ordered by the Congress and deemed pro- 
tection enough against the pirates of Barbary and the invaders 
of any hostile power from across the sea. 

This was in 1794; but in 1795 work was stopped. The 
United States, yielding to the timorous policy of tribute rather 
than war signed a treaty with Algiers by which at an expense 
of nearly a million dollars peace was purchased. It was a dis- 
graceful truckling to a thievish power, but it was the fashion 
with other mercantile states and " peace at any price " was 
desired by the American traders. 

After a while work on the new vessels was resumed and went 
slowly forward. By May, 1798, the frigates Constitution, Con- 
stellation and United States were afloat. A secretary of the 
Navy — Benjamin Stoddert of Maryland — was appointed and 
nine hundred officers and men constituted what was joyfully 
hailed as " the rising navy of America." 

The first of these national vessels to be launched was the 
United States, built at the Southwark yards, near Philadelphia. 
Mr. McMaster has graphically described this event. 

" In the long list of splendid vessels/' he says, "which, in a 
hundred combats, have maintained the honor of our national 
flag, the United States stands at the head. After three years 
of unavoidable detention the first naval vessel built by the 
United States under the Constitution was to be committed to 
the waves. The day chosen for so great an event was the 
tenth of May (1797). The hour was one in the afternoon, and 
the whole city of Philadelphia, it was said, came out to South- 
wark to behold such a rare show. One estimate puts the num- 
ber present at thirty thousand souls. ... It was feared that 
a strong northwest wind, which had for several days kept back 



A RISING POWER. 



*45 



the tides in the Delaware, would make the water much too 
shallow to permit the launch. Yet at sunrise on the morning 
of the tenth the best points of observation began to be occupied 
by an eager throng. By noon every hill-top and every house- 
top commanding a view on each side of the river, and every 
inch of space on the stands put up about the vessel and before 
the houses of Swanson Street, was covered with human beings. 
In the river a hundred craft rode at anchor, gay with bunting 
and richly-dressed dames. At one, precisely, the blocks were 
knocked from under her, the lashings of the cable cut, and, 
amidst the shouts of the great multitude, the United States slid 
gracefully down her ways." 

Four months later, on September 7, 1797, the Constellation 
was launched at Portsmouth in New Hampshire. A month 
after, on October 21, 1797, the Constitution slid from the stocks 
at Charlestown — the Constitution, that historic frio-ate dear to 
so many generations of Americans, and a chipping from whose 
oaken bulwarks has been a coveted and notable relic to many a 
Yankee lad. Of all the gallant craft that have floated the flas: 
of the Union and proved the valor of the American sailor in 
many a stubborn sea-fight none has been more popular or more 
dearly prized than this stout old frigate. And when after a 
half-century of service the rumor came that the old hulk was 
to be broken up* as unfit for further use thousands re-echoed 
the indignant protest of those stirring lines of Holmes which 
so many a Yankee schoolboy has since declaimed with spirit: — 

"Ay, tear her tattered ensign clown ! 

Long has it waved on high, 
And many an eye has danced to see 

That banner in the sky ; 

* It is well to know that these lines written as D--. Holmes now says, " in his fiery young days," had their 
effect. The Constitution was not destroyed as anticipated but was preserved in part as a relic. The old frigate 
is now an annex to the U. S. Naval Academy at Annapolis. 



146 A RISIiYG POWER. 

Beneath it rung the battle shout, 
And burst the cannon's roar ; 

The meteor of the ocean air 

Shall sweep the clouds no more. 



Her deck, once red with heroes' blood, 

Where knelt the vanquished foe, 
When winds were hurrying o'er the flood, 

And waves were white below, 
No more shall feel the victor's tread, 

Or know the conquered knee; 
The harpies of the shore shall pluck 

The eae;le of the sea. 



O, better that her shattered hulk 

Should sink beneath the wave ; 
Her thunders shook the mighty deep, 

And there should be her grave ; 
Nail to the mast her holy flag, 

Set every threadbare sail, 
And give her to the god of storms — 

The lightning and the gale." 



But though the plans for an efficient navy were halted 
awhile by the purchase of a dishonorable peace with the infidel 
Moors of Africa the work was destined to be speedily resumed 
by the rumors of war with the questionable Christians of 
France. It was a time of turmoil in that volatile land. The 
revolution of 1789 overthrew the government of the king and 
established the reign of the people. The tri-color of the repub- 
lic displaced the white flag of the Bourbons on fort and at mast- 
head, and in the arrogance of success the French people, as 
had their kingly tyrants before them, claimed the supremacy of 
the seas as they boastingly asserted their supremacy on the 
land. 



A RISING POWER. 



*47 



England and France were at war. America, struggling 
with financial and political problems, all the harder to solve 
because of the conflicting opinions of a yet unsettled people, 
sought to be neutral in the contest. France, relying on the 
help afforded during the Revolution for aid in her own quar- 
rels, sought to invade this neutrality and force America to 
some overt act against England. President Washington saw 
the folly of such an attempt on the part of a weak and divided 
nation and refused to succor either combatant. Then France, 
combining insult and injury,* broke its treaty of alliance with 
the United States, banished the American ambassadors and 
proclaimed that hereafter the neutrality of America was not 
to be respected. 

Harassed thus by both English and French cruisers the 
condition of the American merchant vessel was pitiable. There 
was safety nowhere on the seas, and to insure for its threatened 
commerce some degree of protection Congress pushed forward 
the completion of its war-vessels and in April, 1798, directed 
President Adams to hire or purchase twelve armed vessels in 
addition to the frigates then building. In May, orders were 
issued for the construction of certain lesser war-vessels and in 
June the President was directed to accept or purchase twelve 
more private armed vessels. 

Under the spur of necessity action was speedv. Ship after 
ship put to sea, prepared for a forcible resistance to French 
cruisers and privateers. America's seamen were her strono- 
reliance and the prompt measures of such naval commanders as 
Captains Stephen Decatur of the Delaware, Bainbridge of the 
Retaliation, Truxtun of the Constellation, Stewart of the 



" Tallyrand himself, says Mr McMaster, had been heard to declare that : " France had nothing to fear from a 
nation of debaters that had been trying for three years to build three frigates." 



148 A RISING POWER. 

Experiment and Talbot of the Constitution moved France first 
to surprise and next to reconciliation. When, by another turn 
of the French kaleidoscope, Napoleon Bonaparte came into 
power one of his first acts was to reconcile the differences be- 
tween France and America, and put a stop to the unfriendly 
ways of French naval commanders. But none the less was 
this result of an impending quarrel due to the firm front pre- 
sented by America against French aggression and the valor 
and pluck of the Yankee blue jackets in their new and hastily 
improvised " navy." 

This trouble with France hardly rose to the dignity of a 
war. It was scarcely more than a naval duel between two 
friendly powers who misunderstood rather than detested one 
another and its end was speedily and joyously announced. 
But the oallant manner in which the new frigate Constellation 
bore herself in the two decisive actions of the " duel " left the 
brightest and most popular memories of this brief international 
"disturbance." In the first of these the American war-ship 
captured the French frigate Insurgente ; and in the second she 
crippled and chased away the larger frigate La Vengeance. 
Commodore Truxtun of the Constellation was the hero of the 
hour. His brave fellows were loudly applauded, while the loyalty 
of the brave little " middy," Jarvis, who would not desert his post 
by the falling foremast but went clown with it to death because 
there was his place in the battle was held by Congress to be 
worthy public recognition and esteemed by the people as 
deserving immortality. 

This trouble safely over a respite came. Relieved of the 
hostile possibilities that had heretofore doubled the risk of every 
venture and emboldened by the knowledge that there did exist 
such a protection as an American navy, merchant-men again 



A RISING POWER. 149 

pushed out on trading trips and the tonnage of the mercantile 
marine increased steadily until, as has been noted elsewhere, it 
stood in 1807 at 848,307 tons. Daring captains, like Cleveland 
of Salem, pushed far from home into the new and unknown 
seas of the Western Pacific on long and hazardous ventures, 
while even the uncertainties of the sea that still existed only 
made the returns from such risks larger because of the few who 
could engage in it. 

One of these hazards was at last to be removed. When in 
the year 1801 a change in administration made Thomas Jeffer- 
son president of the United States, the disgraceful tribute- 
peace with the robbers of the Barbary Powers was still kept 
up by the payment of " concessions " and by gifts. The new 
administration, like the proverbial new broom essayed to sweep 
clean. The navy of the republic, never sufficiently large, was 
reduced to what was termed a " peace footing." Seven of the 
thirteen national frigates were dismantled, the other public ves- 
sels were sold, the officers and men not absolutely required to 
keep up the meagre remnant were discharged, and the protect- 
ing power of the navy was rendered almost valueless by this 
unwise economy. Two of the six frigates kept in service were 
used for bearing American tribute to the African robbers. The 
better sense of America revolted at this semi-slavery. But the 
" interests of commerce " were thought to demand it. " No por- 
tion of our annals," says Mr. Mc Master, " is more shameful than 
the story of the dealings of our government with the horde of 
pirates then known as the Barbary Powers." 

American captains revolted at the orders that made them 
the bearers of hush-money to these contemptible robbers, but 
they were under orders and must obey. There was therefore 
something absolutely dramatic in the conduct of Captain Bain- 



150 A RISING POWER. 

bridge. Ordered to Algiers in the frigate Washington with a 
part of the tribute to the Dey, he was astounded when he 
reached the robber stronghold to receive orders from the Dey 
to proceed with the Washington to Constantinople on the 
Dey's private business — for the Barbary Powers were them- 
selves tributary to Turkey. The doughty captain protested 
that the Washington was an American ship and could not be 
used upon other than American service, but the Dey insolently 
asserted that the payment of tribute made the tributary nation 
a slave to the one receiving tribute. He demanded, further- 
more, that the Washington should fly the Algerine colors at 
the masthead. Bainbridge's protests were ineffectual. The 
pleas of the American consul and the guns of the Algerine 
forts carried the day. The Washington sailed for Constanti- 
nople on the Dey's errand and the red flag of Algiers flew from 
the mainmast; but once out of range of the Algerine batteries 
the Moor's head banner came down from the peak at a run, and 
the stars and stripes flew in its stead. Arrived at Constantino- 
ple the disgusted Yankee captain dispatched a protest to his 
superior, the secretary of the navy, and'added: " I hope I shall 
never again be sent to Algiers with tribute, unless I am author- 
ized to deliver it from the mouth of our cannon." 

While at Constantinople Bainbridge arranged for a dramatic 
revenge. He was politic enough to make himself agreeable to 
the Sultan, who had never even heard of the United States of 
America. Before returning to Algiers the shrewd Yankee cap- 
tain obtained from the Porte a royal mandate, or firman protect- 
ing him from the insolence of the Dey. Then he sailed back 
joyfully. 

His dramatic stroke succeeded admirably. The Dey had 
more business at Constantinople and the American frigate was 



A RISING POWER. 



I 5 I 



a convenient messenger. Again he ordered Bainbridge to 
carry his message. To his astonishment he met with a curt 
refusal. Enraged beyond measure, the Moorish ruler threat- 
ened the American captain with the direst punishment and his 
nation with a relentless war, whereupon Bainbridge quietly 




IN MEDITERRANEAN WATERS. 



exhibited the Sultan's firman and the vassal of the Sultan 
changed his tone instanter. 

It was now Bainbridge's turn. With the air of a master he 
demanded the instant release of all the Christian captives. It 
was granted at once, and the victorious Yankee captain sailed 
away from Algiers carrying with him all the French captives, 
released at his order and without ransom. 

Still the old disgrace continued. New complications arose. 



i 5 2 A RISING POWER. 

Tripoli demanded an increase of tribute. The flag-staff of 
the American consulate was cut down. War was threatened. 
Congress at last awoke to a sense of its degradation. War- 
vessels were dispatched to the Mediterranean, and after much 
" palaver " and some hard fighting the Barbary Powers were 
humbled. The American sailor, behind the guns of American 
frigates, made the flag of his country to be both respected and 
feared and the commerce of the Mediterranean was freed from 
the peril of the African pirates. 

The war had even greater results. It proved to the Euro- 
pean powers the pluck of the American sailor and the strength 
of the small but spirited American navy. It put the half- 
acknowledged allies and abettors of the Barbary corsairs upon 
their good behavior, and it is even claimed that the success of 
the American cruisers in this African war broke forever the 
power of Venice as a maritime state. 

It did even more. It broadened and strengthened the Amer- 
ican sailor. It gave him greater self-reliance and convinced him 
of his ability to withstand, in equal or unequal fight, those 
whom he had heretofore rather dreaded to meet. As Mr. 
Abbot has said: " The political bearing of the Tripolitan war 
upon the war which afterward followed with Great Britain was 
slight ; but, as a discipline for the sterner reality of naval war- 
fare with the nation long reputed to be mistress of the seas, 
the experience of the Yankee tars with the turbanned infidels 
was invaluable. " 

In this, therefore, as in previous conflicts the American 
sailor came off with honor. A naval war, wa^ed, as a rule, 
at a removal from the home-centers contains greater elements 
of popularity than does the bloodier land conflict. There is a 
certain strain of mystery and consequently of glory attached 



A RISING POWER. 



53 



to the fight that reddens the plunging decks with the blood ot 
friend and foe, that sends the lofty mainmast crashing clown in 
wreck, and hears, above the battle's blinding smoke, the clash 
of pike and cutlass or the hoarse shouts of a hand-to-hand con- 
flict as, across the grappled bulwarks, the desperate sea-fighters 
meet in the deadly boarding-rush. So the sea-hero has always 
been a popular hero, from the days of the Vikings to those of 
Trafalgar and Hampton Roads. There was, too, an especial 
dash of romance about this Mediterranean conflict where Occi- 
dent and Orient met in a new crusade, and Yankee and Muzlim 
grappled in deadly fight. The list of heroes grew with each 
fresh batch of news from the East. And from that three-hours' 
battle off the shores of ancient Carthage where Sterrett, in 
the little Enterprise captured the Tripolitan corsair, to that last 
encounter when Commodore Rodgers, before the walls of Tunis, 
humbled its turbanned Bashaw into final submission each new 
encounter gave renewed cause for glorification at home and 
brought fresh honors to the American navy. 

Of course there was another side to it all. The old heroic 
spirit that had made the earlier followers of the Prophet as 
terrible as victorious had degenerated into the bully's bluster 
and the robber's greed. Such a spirit could not withstand the 
dash and courage of a race of hardy, freedom-loving seamen. 
The result could not well be other than it proved. But, for all 
that, the war with the " Barbary Powers " was a feather in 
Columbia's cap, and the whole nation echoed the sentiment that 
animated the spirited lines of one of Columbia's rhymsters: — 

" When fame shall tell the splendid story 
I H Columbia's naval glory, 
Since victorious o'er the deep 
Our eagle-flag was seen to sweep, 



j S4 A RISING POWER. 

The glowing tale will form a page 

To grace the annals of the age, 

And teach our sons to proudly claim 

The brightest meed of naval fame. 

In lofty strains the bard shall tell 

How Truxtun fought, how Somers fell ! 

How gallant Preble's daring host 

Triumphed along the Moorish coast; 

Forced the proud infidel to treat, 

And brought ti'e Crescent to their feet." 

" Preble's daring host," indeed, gained in the way of laurels 
from the war more than any of their comrades. With his ex- 
pedition went that gallant young Portland lieutenant, Henry 
Wadsworth, who, volunteering to blow up certain Tripolitan 
cruisers, as voluntarily perished with his comrades, "preferring 
death to slavery," and leaving thus a hero's memory gave his 
name as a precious heritage to his famous nephew — America's 
greatest poet. 

With Preble went the younger Decatur, destined for still 
greater deeds, who with seventy-four brave young comrades, 
entered the harbor of Tripoli where lay the stranded and cap- 
tured frigate Philadelphia, grappled with the derelict, drove 
its Moorish defenders overboard and then setting it on fire es- 
caped almost uninjured through the terrible bombardment that 
rased all about him from infidel castle, batteries and corsairs. 
It was this same daring young Decatur, too, who running his 
gun-boat alongside one of the largest of the Tripolitan vessels 
speedily overpowered and captured her, grappled with the next 
largest, slew her gigantic captain in single combat, captured 
this second vessel and then rejoined his fleet, the hero of the day. 

With Preble sailed the plucky midshipman Spence who, 
when the Siren was blown up by a Tripolitan shot that fired her 
magazine, coolly loaded the twenty-four pounder at the Siren's 



A RISING POWER. 



r 55 



bow and as the waves were closing above the sinking vessel 
fired one last destructive shot at the enemy and went down into 
the water amid the cheers of his drowning comrades. It was 
Preble, himself, who, commanding that stout old ironsides, the 
Constitution, captured a Moorish frigate, forced an apology 
from the Emperor of Morocco, humbled the ruler of Tripoli, 
blockaded and bombarded Tunis, and fought so brave and suc- 
cessful a series of engagements with the Barbary Powers that 
he well-nigh ended the' war and received on his return home 
the official thanks of the Congress and People of the United 
States. 

The war was over. The treaty of peace concluded with 
the pirates of North Africa was not what the brilliant exploits 
of the navy should have warranted, but it put an end to further 
depredation. Not for years did the Algerian corsairs dare again 
to meddle with American vessels. The tone and efficiency of 
the American navy had been materially advanced by the suc- 
cessful conflict. Its need and value had been made apparent 
to the doubters at home ; its valor was recognized by the 
powers abroad. In all this it was preparing the way for that 
greater and historic conflict with the strongest of the world's 
naval powers — a conflict which, in brilliancy and achievement 
was to add new laurels to its growing fame and give new 
lustre to the name of the American sailor. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



EIGHTEEN TWELVE. 




-A— LL ha-a-a-ands ! up an- 
chor-r-r ahoy ! " 

It was the hoarse call of 
the mate summoning his 
new crew to action. They 
rallied to the call. Speedily 
the sails were loosed, the 
yards were braced, the 
I anchor catted and fished. 
The last hold upon the 
home-land was broken, and 
down the roadstead, and into the open sea sped, let us say, the 
good ship Perseverance, or Aspasia, or Ontario, of New York, 
or Boston, or Philadelphia, bound for Hamburg, perhaps, or 
Copenhagen or some other far-off port with a promising Yan- 
kee venture, in the way of a cargo, of sugars and coffee, cochi- 
neal and other merchantable stuffs. 

But it was seldom that the good ship, whatever her name 
and wherever bound, reached her destination in entire security. 
The logs of merchant captains in those opening years of the 
nineteenth century tell all the same story — heavy risks, con- 
stant losses and the ever-present danger of search and inpress- 
ment from English war-ships. 

156 



"EIGHTEEN TWELVE." i 57 

In those years England's supremacy of the seas was almost 
undisputed. In whatever waters her flag was found there was 
none to successfully dispute her sway. "Since the year 1792," 
says Mr. Roosevelt, "each European nation, in turn, had 
learned to feel bitter dread of the weight of England's hand. 
In the Baltic, Sir William Hood had taught the Russians that 
they must needs keep in port when the English cruisers were 
in the offing. The descendants of the Vikings had seen thei-r 
whole navy destroyed at Copenhagen. No Dutch fleet ever 
put out after the clay when, off Camperdown, Lord Duncan 
took possession of De Winter's shattered ships. But a few- 
years before 181 2, the greatest sea-fighter of all time had died 
in Trafalgar Bay, and in dying had crumbled to pieces the 
navies of France and of Spain." 

What wonder then that the merchant service of America, 
protected by the most meagre of navies, should dread the 
power of England on the seas ? Against the thousand sail of 
the British navy that of America could show but a half-dozen 
frigates and six or eight sloops and brigs. 

Added to this show of superior force the British govern- 
ment had one especial and pernicious political dogma that fell 
with peculiar force upon American ships. This was the asser- 
tion that no British subject could change his nationality. 
"Once an Englishman always an Englishman — once a subject 
always a subject,' 1 this was the British creed. And, to enforce 
it, the boarding-officers of many an English frigate proceeded 
to measures that were unjustifiable, villainous and brutal. 

It was in support of this assertion that Great Britain con- 
tended that " her war-ships possessed the right of searching all 
neutral vessels for the property and persons of her foes " and 
equally that she had the right to take from American merchant 



i 5 8 -EIGHTEEN TWELVE:' 

vessels British seamen or seamen claimed to be such, whatever 
their protest to the contrary or their ability to show proofs of 
American naturalization. 

"Any innocent merchant vessel," says Mr. Roosevelt, "was 
liable to seizure at any minute ; and when overhauled by a 
British cruiser short of men was sure to be stripped of her 
crew. The British officers were themselves the judges as to 
whether a seaman should be pronounced a native of America 
or of Britain, and there was no appeal from their judgment." 

To this impudent " right of search " the English lords of 
the sea added another outrage. They attempted to limit the 
freedom of Americans to trade in French ports, although as 
neutrals in the troubles between France and England the 
American vessels had clearly the right of entry and trade. 

So the trouble grew, and for every American merchantman 
stripped of its crews by English press-gangs or deprived of its 
cargo by English " adjudication " there was one more grievance 
placed against England's account, one more vow of vengeance 
destined at some time to be kept.* 

But even English "decrees" and French "orders" could 
not repress the commercial spirit that has always been the 
corner-stone of the American character. To make a successful 
venture in foreign seas was the hope that burned in the breasts 
of many an ambitious lad in the seaport towns of the Atlantic 
coastboard. 

It has already been shown at how early an age such lads 
went away to sea and how they occupied positions of impor- 
tance on merchant vessels. It is asserted that in many of 
these ventures into foreign seas not only the sailors, from cap- 

* The reader of Cooper's " Miles Wallingford " can derive an excellent idea of this phase of English 



"EIGHTEEN TWELVE." I59 

tain to cabin-boy, had a personal share but that even the fellow- 
townsman of the merchant who fathered the venture, " not 
excepting the merchant's minister, intrusted their savings to 
the supercargo, and watched eagerly the result of their 
adventure." 

How hazardous were these adventures and under what ever- 
present insecurities they were made can be learned from the 
log-book of many an American captain of those early days, and 
from the semi-occasional " Narrative of Voyages and Com- 
mercial Enterprises " that some garrulous, captain would put 
through the press. 

" Having escaped the pirates of all nations (for Government 
ships of the present day deserve no better name)," runs the 
opening line of one of the letters home of Captain Cleveland 
of Salem in the year 1810; and this but indicates the experience 
of many a brother captain of those troublous days. 

The Embargo by which as an act of retaliation the United 
States government sought to punish her two most powerful 
persecutors, France and England, prohibited all vessels from 
leaving American ports. Its effect was disastrous. For, while 
it seriously affected the two powers against which it was aimed, 
it very nearly crippled American commerce. 

Retiring from this untenable position Congress substituted 
for the Embargo the Non-intercourse Act. This prohibited 
commerce with France and England only. At once business 
revived. American vessels were again upon the seas and the 
American flag protected the home ventures in the ports of 
friendly powers. 

To withstand the combined annoyances, however, of the two 
most powerful European nations was no small matter and this 
American merchant captains speedily learned to their cost. 



160 "EIGHTEEN TWELVE:' 

The trouble with France in 179S to which reference has already 
been made ended satisfactorily for America, thanks to Yankee 
grit and the friendliness of the great Napoleon. But English 
annoyance still continued. British cruisers " hove to " many 
an American merchantman and weakened her crew by their 
tyrannical " right of search." Sometimes however they were 
outwitted when by a valorous show of fight or by a diplo- 
macy almost as plucky, the American captain would escape 
from his persecutor. 

All this, though disheartening, was serving a good purpose. 








A STERN CHASE. 



It was developing the American sailor. For, as is often 
shown, it is only through the harshest experiences that the 
stoutest manliness can come. To be ever on his guard, to be 
ready for sudden action, to elude, to strike, if need be to fight 
to the death for his venture and his ship was the constant need 
of the American sailor, be he in fo'cas'le or on quarter-deck. 

" Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty," and this vigilance 
was making the American seaman at once hardy, skillful and 
daring. Smarting under his wrongs he was burning for the 
time when he could revenge himself upon his persecutors, 
and enthusiastically echoed those patriotic words of Pinckney 



"EIGHTEEN TWELVE." 161 

that so fired the American heart : " Millions for defence, but 
not one cent for tribute ! " 

" The stern school in which the American sailor was 
brought up," says Mr. Roosevelt, " forced him into habits of 
independent thought and action which it was impossible that 
the more protected Briton could possess. He worked more 
intelligently and less from routine, and while perfectly obedient 
and amenable to discipline, was yet able to judge for himself 
in an emergency. He was more easily managed than most of 
his kind — being shrewd, quiet, and, in . fact, comparatively 
speaking, rather moral than otherwise. Altogether there could 
not have been better material for a fighting crew than cool, 
gritty American Jack." 

The actual demand for this " cool and gritty " material was to 
come sooner even than the most ardent patriot could imagine. 
Pushed to extremities by British insolence and outrage America 
at first protested and at last struck. The complaints of her 
merchants could not longer go unheeded. " In times like 
these," wrote Captain Cleveland in 1811, "there is no readier 
road to ruin than being concerned in shipping." And many a 
merchant well-nigh despaired of receiving protection from his 
government. But more potent than the British annoyance of 
merchantmen was British interference with American men-of- 
war. The unwarranted attack by the British squadron, in 
November, 1798, upon the American sloop of war Baltimore 
and her convoy of merchantmen, the still more dastardly 
attack by the British cruiser Leopard upon the United States 
frigate Chesapeake, in June, 1807, and the increasing and bur- 
densome aggressions of British privateers led to a climax at 
last in the year 181 1, when Commodore Rodgers in the frigate 
President, took matters into his own hands, and severely pun- 



i6 2 ' "EIGHTEEN TWELVE:' 

ished a British cruiser that insolently answered his hail with a 
shot through the frigate's rigging. " Equally determined," said 
Commodore Rodgers in his report of the action, " not to be 
the aggressor, or to suffer the flag of my country to be insulted 
with impunity, I gave a general order to fire." 

That general order was the signal for speedy action. Diplo- 
macy was of no avail. England would not recede from her 
position as to the permanence of English allegiance, the right 
of search and the tyranny of impressment. It must be vassalage 
or war. The young republic decided for the latter and on the 
twelfth of June, 1812, formerly declared war against Great 
Britain. 

How the American sailor received this important informa- 
tion may be learned from this entry in the diary of midship- 
man Matthew Perry, one of that famous family of American 
sea-fighters : " At ten a. m news arrived that war would be 
declared the following day against Great Britain. Made the 
signal for all officers and boats. Unmoored ship and fired a 
salute." The salute but typified the feelings of all the " blue 
jackets " in the service. So ready, indeed, were they for action 
that it is matter of record that on the very next day after young 
Perry's entry in his diary, and within sixty minutes of the arri- 
val of the news of the declaration of war, Commodore Rodgers' 
squadron, consisting of five war ships — about one third of the 
entire American navy — put out to sea, eager to meet the 
enemy. 

And what an enemy they were to face ! The war of 
" eighteen twelve " was a modern reading of the old story of 
David and Goliath. In spite of all the allowance that should 
be made for our American tendency to be boastful and vain- 
glorious the unequal proportions of the second war with Eng- 



"EIGHTEEN TWELVE." 163 

land make its result a marvel. "The declaration . of war by 
America in June, 181 2," says Green, the English historian, 
" seemed an act of sheer madness. The American navy con- 
sisted of a few frigates and sloops ; its army was a mass of 
half-drilled and half-armed recruits ; the States themselves were 
divided on the question of the war." The country, in fact, was 
actuated by little of that spirit of patriotism that six-and-thirty 
years before had impelled its people to revolution. Its treas- 
ury was empty ; its councils were divided. The agriculturists 
of the interior could not appreciate the woes of their brethren 
of the seaboard. " So great was the cowardly fear of British 
invincibility on the seas," says Mr. Griffis, " and so shameful 
and unjust were the suspicions against our navy that many 
counsellors at Washington urged that the national vessels 
should keep within tide-water and act only as harbor batteries. 
To the earnest personal remonstrance of Captains Bainbridge 
and Stewart we owe it that our vessels got to sea to win a 
glory imperishable." 

Once committed to the war Congress used every endeavor 
to strengthen the navy, for it was speedily foreseen that upon 
that arm of the service must fall the brunt of the conflict. 
And, from the very outset of the struggle, the " blue jackets " 
showed that this reliance was not misplaced. More than one 
stanch frigate sailed to meet the enemy with the American 
sailor's battle-cry streaming from the masthead : " Free Trade 
and Sailor's Rights ! " while the record of the deeds and the 
valor of the American sailor in what was pre-eminently his war 
prove how capable was the American Jack of " eighteen twelve " 
to meet and grapple with a great responsibility. 

It is to be noticed that the British people, puffed up with 
pride over their long-continued superiority on the seas and 



1 64 "EIGHTEEN TWELVE." 

misled by the attitude of certain timid folk in America, entered 
upon the war in a spirit of bravado that was only worthy of 
defeat. To them and to their press the American nation 
seemed only to awaken derision and the American navy to be 
only a subject for ridicule. The Americans, they declared, 
could not be kicked into a war ; " they are spaniel-like in char- 
acter : the more they are chastised, the more obsequious they 
become." The American navy to them had no right to the 
name. Its chief vessel, the Constitution, they characterized as 
a bundle of pine boards, sailing under a bit of striped bunting. 
" A few broadsides from England's wooden walls," so they 
averred, " would drive the paltry striped bunting from the 
ocean." 

But they reckoned without their host. Other " bundles of 
pine boards " besides the gallant Constitution were to be forth- 
coming from the spaniel-like people they so affected to despise 
and the striped bunting was to float in triumph from the mast- 
head of many a British vessel conquered in equal fight. 

More than fifty frigates and war-ships of England struck 
their flags to American men-of-war. A constant stream of 
vessels were carried into port as prizes taken on the sea by 
American valor, while the conquests and destruction wrought 
by American privateers can hardly be computed. Politically, 
both the issues and results of this war between England and 
America were of small consideration in comparison with the 
vaster struggle for supremacy then being waged in Europe. 
But the naval triumphs of America broke alike the boasting 
and the tyranny of these so-called lords of the sea. "The" ef- 
fect of these victories," says Green, " was out of all proportion 
to their real importance ; for they were the first heavy blows 
which had been dealt at England's supremacy over the seas." 



"EIGHTEEN TWELVE." ^5 

And these blows were dealt, emphatically, by the American 
sailor. In spite of the claims of English historians that the 
American ships were largely manned by British sailors it 
is a fact that the crews were almost entirely composed of 
Americans. Three fourths of the common sailors, so says 
Mr. Roosevelt, hailed from the Northern States, one half the 
remainder from Maryland, and the rest chiefly from Virginia 
and South Carolina. Of the officers, he says, Maryland fur- 
nished the greater number, Virginia — then the most populous 
of all the States — ranking next, while four fifths of the 
remainder came from the Northern States. 

A free people is not always amenable to discipline. And 
yet it is a significant fact that the personal superiority of the 
American seaman and his readiness to submit himself to his 
officers proved one of the main causes of his success in this 
the chief of America's ocean wars. The navy of the United 
States was not filled by impressment. Every Yankee Jack was 
a volunteer. The cause for which he was fighting was his 
cause. It was not that of any unloved prince or potentate. 

" Never mind, shipmates," said brave John Alvinson as an 
eighteen-pound shot tore away his life, " I die in defense of 
Free Trade and Sailor's Rights," and with the American sea- 
man's watchword upon his lips, he expired. " I left my own 
country and adopted the United States to fight for her," said 
the wounded Scotch sailor John Ripley, on the captured and 
crippled Essex Junior. " I hope I have this day proved myself 
worthy of the country of my adoption. I am no longer of any 
use to you or to her. I will not die in an English prison. 
Good-by!" And suiting the action to the word he threw him- 
self overboard. 

The American seaman, rough as he may have been, with a 



1 66 "EIGHTEEN TWELVE:' 

certain independence of character that was sometimes unwel- 
come and even galling to those placed in authority over him, 
free-spoken with his superiors where the European man-o '-wars- 
man was almost servile in his time-serving obedience, was 
always a patriot. He had, says Mr. Roosevelt, " an honest and 
deep affection for his own flag ; while, on the contrary, he felt 
a curiously strong hatred for England, as distinguished from 
Englishmen. This hatred was partly an abstract feeling, cher- 
ished through a vague traditional respect for Bunker Hill, and 
partly something very real and vivid, owing to the injuries he 
and others like him had received. Whether he lived in Mary- 
land or Massachusetts, he certainly knew men whose ships had 
been seized by British cruisers, their goods confiscated and the 
vessels condemned. Some of his friends had fallen victims to 
the odious right of search, and had never been heard of after- 
wards. He had suffered many an injury to friend, fortune or 
person and some day he hoped to repay them all ; and when 
the war did come he fought all the better because he knew it 
was in his own quarrel." 

It must be frankly admitted that the war of 1812 was 
brought to a conclusion not because England acknowledged 
herself defeated, but because the downfall of Napoleon and 
the adjustment of European affairs made further strife unneces- 
sary. For this war with America was only esteemed by Great 
Britain as a sort of insignificant side-issue. The losses incurred 
by the British navy were scarcely noticeable in view of its vast 
proportions and its immense resources. Had Great Britain 
really been stubbornly determined to fight out the question of 
supremacy to the extent of her abilities the war might have 
had a different ending. And yet the fact remains that, though 
the treatv of Ghent which terminated the war made no men- 




ON BOARD THE GUERRIERE. — "CAPTAIN HULL'S COMPLIMENTS." 



"EIGHTEEN TWELVE:' x e 9 

tion of the causes that led to the quarrel, the encroachments of 
English cruisers upon American commerce were forever aban- 
doned and the right of search and the impressment of American 
seamen became things of the past. 

For three years was this war fought. Commodore Rodgers' 
opening gun — discharged by his own hand — was fired from 
the frigate President at the British frigate Belvidera off the 
Nantucket shoals, on June the twenty-second, 1812; the last 
broadside of the war thundered by command of Captain Biddle 
from the open ports of the Hornet in the South Atlantic on 
the twenty-third of March, 18 15. And through all that des- 
perate conflict for his right to the seas the American blue 
jacket conducted himself as a sailor and distinguished himself 
as a hero. 

Space is not sufficient here to enter into the details of each 
encounter. But, more than ships and cannon, more than oak 
and iron, were the men who met in conflict and made their 
acts historic. " The Republic of the United States," says Mr. 
Roosevelt, " owed a great deal to the excellent make and arma- 
ment of its ships, but it owed still more to the men who were 
in them. The massive timbers and heavy guns of Old Iron- 
sides would have availed but little had it not been for her able 
commanders and crews." The story of those years of sea- 
struggle has been told by able pens and should prove inspirit- 
ing reading for all Americans. As one of these very chroni- 
clers well remarks: " It must be a poor-spirited American whose 
veins do not tingle with pride when he reads of the cruises and 
fights of the sea-captains, and their grim prowess, which kept 
the old Yankee flag floating over the waters of the Atlantic 
for three years, in the teeth of the mightiest naval power the 
world has ever seen." 



i 7 o "EIGHTEEN TWELVE." 

In the Ions: list of naval heroes who made this war a bril- 
liant era in America's story place and praise must be given to 
many an honored name — to Decatur and Perry and Jones, to 
Blakely and Biddle and Bainbridge, to Lawrence and Burrows 
and Allen, to Warrington and Stewart and Porter, while even 
above these gallant commanders must stand the names of Mac- 
donough, victor on Lake Champlain, and of Isaac Hull, master 
of sea-tactics, " whose successful escape and victorious fight 
place him above any single ship-captain of the war." 

The splendid defense by Captain Porter of the Essex 
against the combined attack of the British war-ships Phcebe 
and Cherub — an action in which our later hero Farragut, then 
a boy of barely thirteen, received his baptism of fire — finds 
scarcely a parallel in the history of the American navy ; the 
rash but glorious action by which Lawrence lost alike the 
Chesapeake and his life won him eternal renown, even through 
defeat and death, as the " Bayard of the seas " ; the successful 
conflict waged by Macdonough upon the land-locked waters of 
Lake Champlain proved him one of the greatest of American 
sea captains ; Perry's victory on Lake Erie, from whence came 
that historic dispatch, " We have met the enemy and they are 
ours ! " made his name more famous than is that of any other 
captain in the war ; and, singularly enough, it was the masterly 
escape of the grand old Constitution, rather than her notable 
victory over the Guerriere, that has gained for Hull his great- 
est renown and made the affair by far the most remarkable 
occurrence of the war. 

The story of that escape is well worth the re-telling. Cruis- 
ing off the New Jersey coast on the seventeenth of July, 1812, 
while yet the war was young, the United States frigate Con- 
stitution found herself threatened by five of the ablest cruisers 



"EIGHTEEN TWELVE." i 7 i 

in the British navy. To fight was almost certain defeat. Cap- 
tain Isaac Hull, commanding the Constitution, had under him 
a newly shipped crew of four hundred and fifty men (including 
officers), but few of them as yet familiar with the ways of naval 
war. Discretion was clearly the better part of valor, but even 
the discretion that retires seemed here unavailable. 

To manoeuvre a forty-four gun frigate out of the clutches 
of live well-equipped cruisers would tax the utmost skill of a 
master of sea-tactics. But Isaac Hull was as daring; as he was 
skillful, and proved himself equal to the emergency. 

Bearing down upon his lee quarter were the Belvidera and 
Guerriere ; astern were the Shannon, the Mollis and the 
Africa. The wind died out. The ships were all becalmed. 
The enemy was drifting nearer and nearer. Capture was 
imminent. 

What wind and sails could not accomplish muscle must do. 
At once Hull ordered out all his boats manned by his sturd- 
iest oarsmen and bade them pull the ship out of her danger. 
Stout hawsers were run out and attached to the row boats. 
Willing arms and sturdy backs bent to the task and the Con- 
stitution began to edge towards safety. Not to be out-pulled 
the British ships resorted to the same tactics and the interven- 
ing distance was lessened. Preparing for the worst Hull 
dragged an eigh teen-pounder as a stern-chaser to the spar-deck 
of his frigate, shifted one of his forecastle twenty-fours to the 
stern and ran two twenty-fours out of his cabin windows. 
" They near us at their peril," said plucky Captain Hull. 

The Shannon, Captain Philip Broke's frigate, coming near- 
est in this towing contest essayed to open fire on the American 
but soon found herself out of range and gave it up. Calling 
all the boats of the squadron to his aid Broke bade the rowers 



1 72 "EIGHTEEN TWELVE." 

pull till the oars cracked but bring him within range of the 
Yankee. The space was lessening again. Hull, with ready 
wit, tried a new dodge. Splicing his hawsers until he had one 
of the required length he attached a kedge-anchor to this and, 
paying it out to his cutters, dropped anchor half a mile ahead of 
his bows. Then came the order: " Clap on now, lads, and walk 
away with the ship ! " Ready and alert the Jackies on the 
Constitution's deck sprang to the rope and hauled away for 
dear life until the great ship was actually pulled up to the 
kedge-anchor and out of all possible gun-range. Another half- 
mile hawser was ready and the manoeuvre was repeated. The 
watchful Britons were at first nonplused, not at once " seeing 
the point." As soon, however, as they did fathom the " Yan- 
kee trick " they immediately followed suit and began to " kedge " 
also. For four hours did this slow r -going game of sea-tag in a 
calm continue, and still the Constitution was not caught. Then 
a light breeze sprung up. The Constitution fired a good-by 
shot at her nearest neighbor the Shannon, trimmed her sails and 
called in her boats. The little puff of wind had brought the 
Guerriere a trifle nearer the American and now she essayed a 
broadside It fell short of the mark, as had the Shannon's shot 
and the Constitution entirely ignored it. 

The wind died out again. Hull lightened his ship by start- 
ing overboard two thousand gallons of water and set his stout 
oarsmen to work on the tow-lines once more. The Shannon 
did the same. And now with kedge and tow-line it was nip 
and tuck between the two big frigates. But the Constitution 
was the better handled of the two and kept just beyond the 
danger range. 

And nowr came the Belvidera's turn to play catcher. Work- 
ing a double "kedge" she outstripped her consorts, gained con- 



"EIGHTEEN TWELVE." 



173 



siderably upon the Constitution, and opened fire on her. But 
she, too, was out of range and fared no better than had her pre- 
decessors. In the face, indeed, of the extra guns that Hull had 
trained on his pursuers none of the British vessels dared to 
come too near the Yankee fearing he would disable or sink 
their tow-boats. 

For fully twenty-four hours had the chase been going on. 




IN "EIGHTEEN TWELVE. 



It was tow and kedge, kedge and tow, but always just out of 
gun-shot for the baffled British cruisers. Their sailors were 
worn out with the unaccustomed labor. The capture of the 
Yankee, seeming ever just within their grasp, really came no 
nearer. And if they were wearied what must have been the 



1 74 ''EIGHTEEN TWELVE?' 

condition of the Americans ? But the brave blue-jackets 
stuck manfully to their work ; officers and men " spelled " 
each other uncomplainingly, catching what bits of rest they 
could, and wherever they could. 

All night long the chase continued. Every puff of wind 
was taken advantage of, alike by pursuers and pursued, to fill 
their lifeless sails. At last, at half-past five on the morning of 
the second day of the chase the breeze freshened, the boats 
were again called in and with every stitch of canvas set the 
race became a trial of sailing skill. 

With his eye noting every move and flutter of his sails, 
Captain Hull worked his ship so skillfully as to draw perceptibly 
ahead of his foes. As the evening of the second day closed in 
he was unmistakably gaining. The Belvidera was two miles 
and a half in his wake ; the Shannon was three and a half miles 
on his lee ; the Guerriere and the /Eolus were five miles and 
more astern, and the Africa was so far to leeward as to be prac- 
tically out of the race. 

Suddenly the sky clouded. There came a change in the air. 
The practiced eye of the Yankee captain detected signs of a 
coming squall. " That shall bring us freedom," he declared. 
And now again he added wit to forethought. " We'll make 'em 
think there's a hurricane coming," he said. With a great show 
of preparation for a coming gale, he furled his light canvas, 
took a double reef in his mizzen topsail and brought his vessel 
instantly under short sail just as the squall struck the ship. 
The British, perceiving this evident haste of action to escape a 
rising gale, followed suit as they had done before at every fresh 
Yankee manoeuvre, and began to take in all sail speedily and 
to sail on different tacks to escape the storm. The ruse suc- 
ceeded admirably. The storm and mist closed down upon the 



"EIGHTEEN TWELVE." 175 

vessels for an instant and then the squall passed off to leeward, 
but in that instant Captain Hull had sheeted home, hoisted his 
fore and main-top gallant sails and "with every rag out" was 
speeding away from his pursuers at the rate of eleven knots an 
hour. He had out-sailed, out-manoeuvred and out-witted his 
foe ! The disgusted Britons hastened to clap on all sail again 
and follow their escaping prey but the chase was virtually over. 
At sunset the American was far ahead; at six o'clock on the 
morning of the third day the British squadron was almost lost 
to sight and two hours later the hopeless chase was abandoned. 
Yankee srit had won. 

One of the finest frigates in the American navy had been 
saved to the service when least it could have been spared by 
one of the most remarkable and most exciting sea-races on 
record. Becalmed, surrounded and threatened with almost cer- 
tain capture, pitted against five well-equipped British captains 
— two of them among the ablest in the whole British navy — 
Isaac Hull had most skillfully out of the nettle danger plucked 
the flower safety, and in a three days' race for life had proven 
the superior skill and seamanship of the American sailor. 

Within less than a month he had his revenge. Coming up 
with the Guerriere, one of the most boastful of his pursuers, on 
the afternoon of the nineteenth of August, he commenced 
action at once. No less skillful in battle than in retreat, he 
so handled his ship and so played his guns that after a desperate 
encounter, lasting only thirty minutes, the Guerriere was a de- 
fenceless hulk, rolling her main-deck guns into the sea. 

" Captain Hull presents his compliments, sir," said young 
Lieutenant Read of the Constitution, springing upon the deck 
of the crippled frigate, " and wishes to know if you have struck 
your flag ? " 



176 "EIGHTEEN TWELVE:' 

" Well, I don't know," was the dry reply of Dacres, the 
captain of the Guerriere, " our mizzen-mast is gone ; our 
mainmast is gone ; and I think, on the whole, you may say 
to Captain Hull that we have struck our flag." 

If such encounters as were these proved the ability of 
American commanders they showed, no less, the grit and fight- 
ing-stuff of the American sailor. " I honestly believe," says 
Mr. Roosevelt, " that the American sailor offered rather better 
material for a man-of-wars-man than the British, because the 
freer institutions of his country, and the peculiar exigencies of 
his life tended to make him more intelligent and self-reliant." 
And the fragmentary stories that have come down to us from 
that time of struggle bear out this statement. 

" My brave fellow, you are mortally wounded," said the 
surgeon of the Constitution to Tobias Fernell, as the mangled 
sailor with both legs shot away echoed with a cheery shout his 
comrades' huzzas of victory over the captured Cyane. 

"I know it, sir; I know it. I only care to hear that the 
other ship has struck." 

When, during the engagement with the Guerriere, the Con- 
stitution's flag was shot away from the main-top, young John 
Hogan gallantly climbed to the top and, amid a storm of bullets, 
lashed it to the mast. When Garnet " as gallant as Nelson," 
fell, in Chauncey's fight in Kingston harbor, his men " prayed 
and entreated to be laid close aboard the Royal George only for 
five minutes, just to revenge Garnet's death." 

Michael Smith, with his thiarh twice shattered in the fisfht 
with the Penguin, lifted himself on the bloody deck of the 
Hornet "just for one last shot." Perry's pilot in the Lake 
Erie fight, jumped with his leader into the boat that was to 
make the perilous passage from the Lawrence to the Niagara 



"EIGHTEEN TWELVE." 177 

declaring that he would stick by his captain to the last ; James 
Anderson, in the Essex and Phoebe fight, with his dying breath 
bade his messmates " Give it to 'em, give it to em hard, lads ; 
we're fighting for our liberty;" Seaman Thompson of the 
Chesapeake, hearing the call for boarders, alone sprang upon 
the Shannon when others held back from the leap, and finding 
himself unsupported bravely fought his way back to his own 
deck again. " Aim at the yellow, man ! " cried Decatur to one 
of his o-unners. The shot, thus aimed, struck the mizzen-mast 
of the Macedonian just as it was falling. " Ah-ha, my boy," 
said the excited sailor, slapping his watching commodore on 
the back, " we've made a brig of her ! " 

These, and countless other incidents of similar tenor that 
have come to us as " fo'casT yarns " or as matter of historic 
record, may be treasured by all Americans as proof of the 
valor, the determination, the enthusiasm, and the patriotism of 
the American sailor. Nor should we forget the gallant record 
of that less regular but fully as efficient factor in the tale of 
naval warfare, the privateers of " eighteen twelve." Bent mainly 
on the accumulation of prize-money they nevertheless exhibited 
as much of courage, of dash and of patriotism as did their 
brothers of the regular service. The story of Captain Boyle 
and the Chasseur, of Captain Southcombe and the Lottery, of 
Captain Ordronaux and the Neufchatel, with many others of 
equal merit have given, alike to captains and crews of these 
irregular cruisers, as fine a record for bravery and skill as 
appears to the credit of the regularly commissioned seamen ; 
the career of Captain Samuel Reid and his famous craft 
the General Armstrong is one continuous record of daring and 
of valor. " God deliver us from our enemies, if this is the way 
they fight," cried one Englishman, who witnessed the terrible 



178 



" EIGHTEEN TWEL VE." 



defeat of the fourteen British boats, off Fayal, by Reid and his 
privateersmen. 

War is always a sad alternative. The conflict of 181 2 was 
unnecessary and might have been averted had but England 
been less arrogant in her claims of mastery and had America 
been less vacillating in her foreign policy. But when the war 
did come it was so gallantly fought out, at least upon the ocean 
and the lakes, as to give to the American sailor of eighteen 
hundred and twelve a notable place in the annals of naval war- 
fare and on the rolls of naval heroism. 




CHAPTER IX. 



ON THE HIGH SEAS. 




NE would imagine that the 
growth of the ocean com- 
merce, and therefore of the 
commercial marine of the 
United States would have 
been instant and rapid when 
once the American sailor 
had established his right to 
the seas. But this seems 
not to have been the case. 
Statistics show that during 
the years succeeding the close of the last war with Great 
Britain (notably between the years 1818 and 1825) there was 
not only no increase in what is known by merchants as "the 
registered tonnage " of the United States but a real decrease. 

In the year 1807 this "registered tonnage" was, as has 
been already stated, 848,307 tons ; in the year 1837 it was but 
810,000 tons — a falling off of over 38,000 tons, instead of 
the increase that one would suppose should have resulted from 
thirty years of American progress. 

One explanation of this absolute decline in commercial 
energy is to be found in the fact that the almost ceaseless 

179 



i8o ON THE HIGH SEAS. 

warfare between France and England, during the years that 
succeeded the formation of the United States of America, had 
thrown the carrying trade of the world almost exclusively into 
American control. The conclusion of this long-standing hos- 
tility enabled both Powers to take to themselves once again 
the transportation of their respective commerical ventures, 
while the blow dealt to American commerce by the dangers of 
war and the restrictions of embargo and non-intercourse was 
one from which recovery was slow. 

The development of so new and so vast a country as was 
the United States offered to the enterprising youth of America 
an even more promising field for successful labor than the un- 
certain ocean could assure. Those who had heretofore looked 
longingly toward a sea-life found a stronger influence in the 
gleam of the axe and the crack of the rifle, while many a 
toughened tar whose life had been spent in the forecastle of 
a merchantman or on the deck of a man-o'-war now deserted 
his old associations for the life of the pioneer, and in these 
new and, at first, strange surroundings exchanged the cutlass 
for the ploughshare and the marline-spike for the pruning hook. 

To this general statement one exception must be made. 
There was one class of seafaring-men who were not to be turned 
from their old pursuits by the allurements of Western forests or 
the golden promises of the fertile frontier. The fisher-folk of 
the East were proof against the fascinations of the West. For 
them the golden harvest-field had no attraction. Beneath the 
tossing waters that washed their rocky shores lay as certain 
and as sure a harvest as Western grain-fields could give. ""No 
whaler," says Mr. McMaster, " left his vessel; no fisherman of 
Marblehead or Gloucester exchanged the dangers of a life on 
the ocean for the privations of a life in the West. Their 



ON THE HIGH SEAS. 181 

fathers and their uncles had been fishermen before them, and 
their sons were to follow in their steps." 

As the result of these changing phases in American life the 
enterprise of the American sailor upon the high seas, for at 
least a quarter of a century, lay practically dormant. The 
coasting trade grew steadily and domestic commerce called for 
the employment of smaller craft and for good " near-shore " 
sailors. These home-stayers, however, the regulation ocean 
sailor always affected to despise. 

But, all in good time, there came a change. The ceaseless 
tide of immigration and the constantly-increasing population of 
the American nation led to as rapid a growth of its commerce. 
That stagnant quarter of a century that closed with 1837 was 
followed by a sudden and marvelous advance. From 810,000 
tons engaged in foreign commerce or ventures on the high seas 
— so the dry statistics tell us — the registered tonnage of the 
United States rose to 1,241,000 in 1847, to 2,463,000 in 1857, 
and, in 1861, had reached the successful-looking total of 
2,642,000 tons. That year marked the culminating point of 
American commerce. For it is stated that in that historic and 
pivotal year of America's national life, the maximum tonnage 
of the United States — that is to say, the entire carrying ca- 
pacity of the mercantile vessels of the United States engaged 
in foreign and domestic trade and in the fisheries — amounted 
to 5,539.81 3 tons. This was very nearly one third of the ton- 
nage of the entire world, which had then reached a total of 
more than seventeen million tons. It was but a trifle below 
that of Great Britain, and was very nearly as large as the entire 
tonnage of all the other maritime nations combined. 

That quarter-century of steady maritime growth — from 1837 
to 1861 — is esteemed for America as the "palmy days " of its 



182 ON THE HIGH SEAS. 

merchant service. The ships of the American republic sailed 
into every sea; her flag was a familiar sight in every port; her 
sailors were esteemed the most fortunate of all sea-farers ; her 
service stood at the best and was held in the highest repute. 

" In those clays," says Mr. Nordhoff, " the American ship 
was the tautest, the best fitted, the best sailer and made the 
most successful voyages. The American shipmaster was by 
far the most intelligent of his class; he had also the air, as he 
had the habit of success ; and he delighted in nothing so much 
as in a ' trading voyage,' in which he was not only master, 
but supercargo, and with a ' roving commission ' went out to 
Africa, or the Indian Ocean, or the ' West Coast,' to barter 
American goods and Yankee notions for the produce of the 

country In those days we Yankees counted ourselves 

the best men that sailed the seas." 

One of the most famous of Longfellow's poems found its 
inspiration in these days of Yankee supremacy on the sea, — 
" The Building of the Ship " written in 1849. Of that poem 
President Lincoln said, as with tear-filled eyes and with cheeks 
still wet he listened to the closing lines, " it is a wonderful gift 
to be able to stir men like that." And surely a service that 
could inspire such lines must have been superb in it appoint- 
ments, noble and manly in its calling: 

" Behold at last, 
Each tall and tapering mast 
Is swung into its place ; 
Shrouds and stays 
Holding it firm and fast! 

And every where 

Her slender, graceful spars 

Poise aloft in the air, 



ON THE HIGH SEAS. 183 

And at the mast head, 

White, blue and red, 

A Hag unrolls the stripes and stars. 

Ah ! when the wanderer, lonely, friendless, 

In foreign harbors shall behold 

That flag unrolled, 

'Twill be as a friendly hand 

Stretched out from his native land, 

Filling his heart with memories sweet and endless! 

To-day the vessel shall be launched ! 

With fleecy clouds the sky is blanched, 

And o'er the bay, 

Slowly, in all his splendors dight, 

The great sun rises to behold the sight, 

Then the Master 

With a gesture of command, 

Waved his hand ; 

And at the word, 

Long and sudden there was heard, 

All around them and below, 

The sound of hammers, blow on blow, 

Knocking away the shores and spurs. 

And see ! she stirs ! 

She starts — she moves — she seems to feel 

The thrill of life along her keel, 

And, spurning with her foot the ground, 

With one exulting, jovous bound, 

She leaps into the ocean's arms ! " 

In those days of many ships and of stanch ones the 
American sailor was a man of mark among those who " went 
down to the sea in ships." As a result he was inclined to hold 
himself above the seamen of other nations. A Yankee crew, 
with a certain arrogance of its surroundings, was accustomed 
to commiserate and even to despise those whom fortune or fate 
had placed in the ships of other nations. " They looked down," 
says Mr. Nordhoff, "upon the 'lime-juicers,' as they called 
English ships and sailors, as rather a stupid and semi-brutal 



184 



ON THE HIGH SEAS. 



lot. They laughed at the ' parleyvoos,' or Frenchmen, as better 
shoemakers than sailors. They despised the ' Dagoes,' or 
Spaniards, as fellows who always lost in the race." The Amer- 
ican seamen had also a certain aristocracy of service among 
themselves. " The style and gentility of a ship and her crew," 
says Mr. Dana, " depended upon the length and character of 




UNDER FULL SAIL. 



the voyage. An India or China voyage was always the thing, 
and a voyage for furs to the Northwest coast (the Columbia 
River or Russian America) was romantic and mysterious, and if 
it but took the ship round the world, by way of the Islands and 
China, it would outrank them all." " One of the Pilgrim's 
crew," he continues, "used to tell a story of a mean little cap- 



ON THE HIGH SEAS. 185 

tain in a mean little brig" — there were such, it seems, even 
then in the American service — " in which he sailed from Liver- 
pool to New York, who insisted on speaking a great home- 
ward-bound Indiaman, with her studding-sails out on her decks, 
and a monkey and paroquet in her rigging, ' rolling down from 
St. Helena.' There was no need of his stopping to speak her, 
but his vanity led him to do it, and then his meanness made 
him so awe-struck that he seemed to quail. He called out, in a 
small, lisping voice, ' What ship is that, pray ? ' A deep-toned 
voice roared through the trumpet, ' The Bashaw, from Canton, 
bound to Boston. Hundred and ten clays out! Where are 
you from ? ' ' Only from Liverpool, sir,' he lisped, in a most 
apologetic and subservient voice. The humor of this," adds 
Mr. Dana, " will be felt by those only who know the ritual of 
hailing at sea. No one says 'sir,' and the 'only ' was wonder- 
fully expressive." 

Next to the Indiamen and other long-voyage vessels the 
packet-ships held honorable rank among the craft on the high 
seas. They were always well-built, well-officered and well- 
manned, and carried the choicest of cargoes — passengers from 
overcrowded Europe seeking life and opportunity in the great 
Western Republic. These were the " greyhounds of the seas," 
known as clipper ships, built in New York and Brooklyn yards 
and commanded by " true-blue " American officers. The com- 
manders of these packet ships were, indeed, alert and ener- 
getic men, masters in their profession and ambitious to main- 
tain the record for speed and promptness. " The master of the 
Montauk," says Cooper, in one of his novels descriptive of life 
on a packet ship, " had a proper relish for his lawful gain as 
well as another, but he was vainglorious on the subject of his 
countrymen, principally because he found that the packets out- 



1 86 ON THE HIGH SEAS. 

sailed all other merchant-ships, and fiercely proud of any quality 
that others were disposed to deny them." 

Built for fast sailing, with symmetrical proportions and ele- 
gant appointments, the packet ship of fifty years ago, occupied 
the place now filled by the superb vessels of the great foreign 
steamship lines. Writers of that day are loud in their praise. 
N. P. Willis in one of his descriptions of the New York water- 
side speaks of " the superb packet ships with their gilded prows." 
Cooper refers to them as " those surpassingly beautiful and 
yacht-like ships that now ply between the two hemispheres in 
such numbers, and which in luxury and the fitting conveniences 
seem to vie with each other for the mastery." 

It was the day of rapid sailing under canvas. The packet 
ships were the fleetest of these sea-racers and every brilliant 
record was noted with pride by press and people. Vessels like 
the Palestine would often make the passage from New York to 
the Isle of Wight in fourteen days, and the ambitious packet 
captain anxious to keep up the record, would remain on deck 
hour after hour crowding on canvas and taking advantage of 
every possible change in wind and rain. " A fine sight it was," 
says a writer of that day, "to see a returning packet come up 
the East River and anchor off her pier with all sails set. The 
news of her arrival had been conveyed from Sandy Hook to 
Staten Island and thence by another signal telegraph to New 
York, though, perhaps, she had been two days in sailing her 
last twenty miles from the Hook to the river." 

The famous Dreadn aught was one of the most celebrated of 
these Yankee clippers. Built in 1853, on her first return "trip 
from Liverpool she beat the Cunard steamer Canada into 
Boston harbor. In 1859 she made the phenomenal run of three 
thousand miles from Sandy Hook to Rock Light, Liverpool, in 



ON THE HIGH SEAS. 187 

thirteen clays and eight hours, while, three years after, in 1862, 
she covered the distance from Sandy Hook to Oueenstown, 
twenty-seven hundred and sixty miles, in nine days and seven- 
teen hours. This feat by a sailing vessel stands without a 
parallel. Steam, alas ! that tolled the death knell of the ocean 
packets shelved the noble Dreadnaught. But she sailed blue 
water stoutly to the last. In the September gales of 1887, the 
famous old clipper yielded to the enemy she had so long kept 
under keel. In that fierce month of storm she went down in 
wreck off the cruel coast of Newfoundland. 

Far different from these trim and elegantly appointed pas- 
senger vessels in which the sailor found a snug berth, short 
passages and fair pay, were the merchant vessels that made 
long voyages to every point of the compass in the interests of 
the special branch of commerce that their owners affected. 
No better or more graphic description of life aboard such a 
merchant vessel can be found than is detailed in that American 
sea-classic by Richard Henry Dana, familiar to thousands of 
readers as " Two Years Before the Mast." His experiences as 
a common sailor upon two of the Boston hide-ships on the 
Pacific coast — the Pilorim and the Alert — touch both the 
sun and shadow in the American sailor's life, and with all 
the breezy flavor of a sea story combine the realism of daily 
life aboard ship and the masterly touches of a well-equipped 
student of human nature. No American boy should be 
allowed to grow to manhood without having the opportunity 
to read this unaffected and manly recital of an American 
sailor's experiences "before the mast." 

Life on the high seas, as countless books of salt-water 
adventure and experience have pictured it, had in it more of 
stern reality, of harsh requirements, and of unwelcome duties 



1 88 ON THE HIGH SEAS. 

than almost any other service into which a free man could vol- 
untarily enter. " My lad," said one old sailor to a younger 
listener as the two stood by the hastily-made grave of a fellow- 
seaman, " log this down for your benefit : there is not much in 
a life that means hard work, poor pay, and ends like this ; you 
drop it as soon as you can." 

But there were few who did drop it until, after years of 
hard service, like battered hulks they drew ashore to slowly go 
to pieces in the safe harborage of home or, perhaps, within one 
of the numerous " Retreats " that philanthropy built for the 
kindly care of such human " flotsam and jetsam." With all its 
hardships and with all its risks there was always a fascination 
about this life on the heaving waters and the rolling deck that 
sent back to it again and again those who had thought to give 
it up forever when once they made their home port in safety. 

The American sailor, in those "palmy days" when there 
were American sailors, retained his manliness and his indi- 
viduality where the seamen of other nationalities were apt to 
be surly, grumbling, obsequious or time-serving, deceitful or 
insubordinate, according to their national characteristics or the 
nature of the service under whose flag they sailed. The 
American was more of a comrade, had less of the petty and 
personal jealousies that life in the confined compass of the 
gloomy forecastle was liable to create, and seemed to possess a 
higher idea of the real meaning of duty than had the seamen 
of other nations. " Now, Charley," said one of the shipmates of 
young Nordhoff, as that boyish sailor was about to ship into a 
new vessel as " able seaman ; " now, Charley, this is your first 
voyage as seaman, and you mustn't let any one go before you. 
Wherever there's duty, there's likely to be danger, boy, and 
wherever there's danger, there do you be first." 



ON THE HIGH SEAS. 189 

It is a common remark that a ship on the high seas, in those 
busy days, was a floating autocracy in which the captain held 
the power of life and death, and where resistance was mutiny. 
But American seamen knew their rights and even tyrannical 
officers paid respect to the unwritten law of the forecastle. 

One of these unwritten law r s was said to be that no officer 
had a right to enter the "fo'casT" without giving due notice of 
his intention and receiving the permission of its occupants. 
It once happened in an American ship, so the story goes, that 
an impatient mate finding the watch slow in answering his 
summons sprang down "below" to hurry them up. On the 
instant the flickering forecastle "glim" was "doused"; the 
object that happened to be nearest within reach of the outraged 
seamen — from boot to "scouse-kid " — went flying at the head 
of the offending officer and he, like a prudent man, made for 
the deck without further words and as rapidly as possible. Sea 
law was against him. He knew it, and he knew also that he 
had too good a crew to " risk a fuss." He simply held his temper 
and his tongue, while the men were sensible enough to seek 
for no further advantage from their victory. Another of these 
" fo'casT " laws made it improper for new hands to be set to 
work before they had 4}een " called aft" and " turned to duty." 
There is a story that a mate on an American vessel once, with 
oaths and hard language, ordered aloft certain of his crew who 
had just come aboard. At once the men, in a body, walked aft 
and, hats in hand, confronted the astonished mate. " Mr. 
Mate," said the oldest sailor, acting as spokesman, "we've 
shipped on your vessel as able seamen. We know our duty, 
sir, and mean to do it. If we don't, we know what to expect. 
But we're no ' sogers.' We mean to be treated decently and 
civilly as long as we do our duty. So look a-here. If you 



tgo 



ON THE HIGH SEAS. 



swear at one of us, he'll swear back. If you strike one of us, 
he'll kill you." This was forecastle law stoutly laid down. But 
the mate knew that, as custom ran, the men were in the right. 
He saw, moreover, that they were thorough seamen, and, with- 
out a word of hot reply he said simply, " Go forward, men, and 
turn to your duty. Two of you go aloft and cross the topgal- 
lant-yard, the rest of you stand by." And, in a long and tedi- 
ous voyage, says the narrator, there was never a threat of 
trouble or abuse on board that ship. " Fo'casT law " had been 
recognized and respected. 

To the merchant service, indeed, as a school for training, 
was awarded by Mr. Nordhoff, who had himself served in 
both, the preference, as compared with the navy. The mer- 
chantman, he says, assumed interests and felt consequent 
responsibilities to which the " blue-jacket " was a stranger. 
There were fewer hands to do the work, and each sailor 
therefore, if he would save himself double duty in the end, 
was watchful, alert and ready to share the labors that fall to 
those before the mast. " And among every good crew," says 
Mr. Nordhoff, " there exists an esprit ds corps which makes 
each man do his duty willingly, but present a front as of one 
man to the officer who attempts to exact more." 

But forecastle law is brief and meagre when compared with 
the autocracy of the quarter-deck. Legislation has consider- 
ably modified this petty tyranny but, fifty years ago, the author- 
ity of a captain on board his ship had scarcely a limit. He was, 
indeed, " lord paramount." Although life on a merchant ves- 
sel was less hampered with rules and restrictions than on a 
man-of-war the sailors' privileges, even on the best of merchant 
ships, were few indeed. " Them men-o'-war captains is little 
kings," said an old sailor, contrasting life on a merchant vessel 



1 




ON THE HIGH SEAS. 193 

to that on a war ship. But all the records show that even the 
bondage of the latter, so thoroughly hated by merchant sailors, 
was often equaled in severity by the slavery on the former. 
Punishments were frequent. Insolence and tyranny toward the 
over-worked sailors all too often led either to abject submission 
or to insubordination and a brutal captain could make his ship, 
as the sailors often called it, " a floating hell." 

" Every one else," says Mr. Dana, after describing an un- 
warranted flogging scene on the ship in which he was one of 
the crew, "stood still at his post, while the captain, swelling 
with rage and with the importance of his achievements, walked 
the quarter-deck and at each turn as he came forward calling- 
out to us : ' You see your condition ! You see where I have 
got you all and you know what to expect! I'll make you toe 
the mark, every soul of you, or I'll flog you all, fore and aft, 
from the boy up ! You've got a driver over you ! Yes, a slave 
driver — a nigger driver! I'll see who'll tell me he isn't a 
nigger slave ! ' Such treatment and such language were ill- 
fitted to make an American sailor submissive and obedient. 
A seaman of foreign birth would sulk under them and dream 
of a sweet revenge, but the American, with the sense of out- 
raged manliness and the knowledge that at home he was a free 
man and a citizen, was stung by such treatment to a sense of 
degredation that his un-American comrade was incapable of. 
" I had no apprehension," says Mr. Dana, " that the captain 
would try to lay a hand on me ; but our situation living under 
a tyranny with an ungoverned, swaggering fellow administering 
it and the character of the country we were in ; the length of 
the voyage; the uncertainty attending our return to America; 
and then if we should return a prospect of obtaining justice 
and satisfaction for these poor men all filled me with dread ; 



1 94 ON THE HIGH SEAS, 

and I vowed that, if God should ever give me the means, I would 
do something to redress the grievances and relieve the sufferings 
of that class of beings with whom my lot had so long been cast." 

That he kept his vow we are well assured. Flogging on 
board American ships has long been a thing of the past. 
While the organized movement for its abolition was largely 
the work of such noble naval officers as Commodore Matthew 
Perry and his associates, it is not easy to calculate how 
much of the reform in this direction was due also to the 
silent influence of " Two Years Before the Mast." 

Subjected to abuse of this sort it is little wonder that in 
persons of weak natures or of ill-balanced minds tyranny should 
lead to recklessness, and that, far too often, Jack should have 
developed into a drudge on shipboard and a sot ashore. An- 
noyances, deprivations, hardships and petty tyrannies often 
ruined many a poor fellow who had not sufficient strength of 
character to bear up under their strain. But it is equally true 
that where such treatment could be borne in silence or was 
manfully resisted the experience often served to bring out all 
that was strongest and most determined in a seaman's nature. 

" Sailors are rough fellows," says Mr. Nordhoff, speaking out 
of his own experience, " and have their lull share of the weak- 
nesses incident to our common humanity ; but careless and light- 
hearted — and often positively wicked — as is your real tar, no 
man has a warmer or more easily-touched heart than he ; no one 
is more susceptible to the deeper and better feelings of our nat- 
ure Rough and plain-spoken as he is there is no tenderer 

heart than Jack's. There is no kinder nurse in sickness, no 
less selfish companion in the every-day pursuits of life, no more 
open-handed and free-hearted giver to the poor and needy, than 
he of the bronzed cheek and tarry frock." 



ON THE HIGH SEAS. 195 

So life on the high seas, in those " palmy days " of the mer- 
chant service, with all its hardships and with all its drawbacks, 
was full of the promise of adventure, of excitement, of change 
and of profit. Small wonder, then, that it could lure the 
dashing, ambitious and restless young fellow ashore into serv- 
ing before the mast — hopeful, even to the last, of rising to the 
mate's berth or to the authority of the quarter-deck. 

The demands of the merchant service gave employment, 
in those days, to thousands of busy workers on land as well as 
sea, and in every seaboard community, from Bath to Balti- 
more, and on to Charleston and New Orleans, the sound of 
saw and hammer, adze and plane testified to the growing 
spirit of commercial enterprise, as, down from the well-greased 
ways of many a ship-yard, slid the finished hull that had been 
for months busily preparing upon the stocks — a fresh proof of 
the clever and finished workmanship that gave to American 
vessels the palm for beauty, stanchness and speed. 

East and west, south and north sped the stout ships, their 
white wings filled by favoring breezes, the flag of the Union 
flying at the masthead, and, tightly packed in capacious holds, 
the products of many a land and clime. The sailor loved his 
ship. Alike hardy seaman and hopeful merchant, as they 
looked with pride upon glistening hull, tapering mast and bulg- 
ing sail, could praise the skill and the deft workmanship that 
had given so beautiful a creation to the sea. And both, too, 
could join with the shipbuilders in that song of their craft that 
Whittier, our poet of the people, had voiced for them : — 

" Up ! — up ! — in nobler toil than ours 

No craftsmen bear a part : 
We make of Nature's giant powers 

The slaves of human Art. 



19 6 ON THE HIGH SEAS. 

Lay rib to rib and beam to beam, 
And drive the treenails free ; 

Nor faithless joint nor yawning seam 
Shall tempt the searching sea ! 



Where'er the keel of our good ship 

The sea's rough field shall plough, — 
Where'er her tossing spars shall drip 

With salt-spray caught below, — 
That ship must heed her master's beck, 

Her helm obey his hand, 
And seamen tread her reeling deck 

As if they trod the land. 

Her oaken ribs the vulture-beak 

Of Northern ice may peel ; 
The sunken rock and coral peak 

May grate along her keel ; 
And know we well the painted shell 

We give to wind and wave, 
Must float, the sailor's citadel, 

Or sink, the sailor's grave ! 

Ho ! — strike away the bars and blocks, 

And set the good ship free ! 
Why lingers on these dusty rocks 

The young bride of the sea ? 
Look ! how she moves adown the grooves, 

In graceful beauty now ! 
How lowly on the breast she loves 

Sinks down her virgin prow ! 

God bless her ! wheresoe'er the breeze 

Her snowy wing shall fan, 
Aside the frozen Hebrides, 

Or sultry Hindostan! 
Where'er in mart or on the main, 

With peaceful flag unfurled, 
She helps to wind the silken chain 

Of commerce round the world ! 



ON THE HIGH SEAS. 197 

Speed on the ship ! But let her bear 

No merchandise of sin, 
No groaning cargo of despair 

Her roomy hold within ; 
No Lethean drug for Eastern lands, 

Nor poison-draught for ours; 
But honest fruits of toiling hands 

And Nature's sun and showers. 

Be hers the Prairie's golden grain, 

The Desert's golden sand, 
The clustered fruits of sunny Spain, 

The spice of Morning-land ! 
Her pathway on the open main 

May blessings follow free, 
And glad hearts welcome back again 

Her white sails from the sea! " 

Unfortunately, however, if the truth must be told, too many 
a gallant ship in those busy days bore within her hold the " mer- 
chandise of sin." Too often the sharp bows and square yards, 
the grace of outlines and tautness of rig that moved a sailor to 
admiration denoted the swift-sailing clipper that plied to and 
from the African coast bearing its accursed cargo of slaves, 
destined for the American or Cuban markets. The story of 
the suppression of the African slave-trade is a picturesque and 
exciting one. Says Mr. Griffis : " The business of slave export 
had in it plenty of gain, some lively excitement, but little or 
no danger. Decoys were commonly used. While a gunboat 
was giving chase to some old tub of a vessel, with fifty diseased 
or worn-out slaves on board, a clipper-ship with several hundred 
in her hold, with loaded cannon to sweep the decks in case of 
mutiny, and with manacles for the refractory, would dash out 
of her hiding-place among the mangroves and scud across the 
open sea to Cuba or Brazil." 



198 



ON THE HIGH SEAS. 



Although the treaty of Ghent, which closed the war of 181 2, 
had sounded the death-knell of this horrid traffic so far as the 
protection of the American flag was concerned, it is certain that 
far too often the swift clippers employed by the human traders 

of Spanish America 
were Yankee built 
and sometimes Yan- 
kee manned. But 
it is also a pleas- 
ure to reflect that 
none were warier to 
track or swifter to 
destroy these pirati- 
cal hunters of men 
than were the war- 
ships and the blue- 
jackets of the navy 
of the United 
States — a country 
not then itself free 
from the stain of 
traffic in human 
flesh. 

And during all 
those years of peace 
that intervened between the last war with England and the 
struggles of the mid-century the little navy of the growing 
nation was seldom inactive. Her squadrons did duty in many 
a sea and bore the flag of the Union alike in petty conflict 
and in the interests of a wider knowledge of the possibilities 
of the globe. 




'SHIP AHOY ! 



ON THE HIGH SEAS. 199 

The American navy, in those years of peace, drove from 
the historic waters of the Spanish Main the " Brethren of the 
coas t" — those cut-throat robbers of the West Indian seas who, 
known to the sailors as " picaroons," preyed upon the commerce 
of every land and made their black flag the symbol of brutality 
and crime. So effective, under Commodore Porter's vigor- 
ous methods, was the work done by the American squadron 
in its punishment of the " Brethren of the coast " that those 
sea-robbers dared no longer fly their savage standard and, in- 
deed, as Mr. Griffis says : " piracy on the Atlantic coast has 
ever since been but a memory. Unknown to current history, 
it has become the theme only of the cheap novelist and now 
has, even in fiction, the flavor of antiquity." 

Lafitte, last of the Gulf pirates and most picturesque of all, 
aping the ways of the greater Morgan, sought to establish a 
piratical confederacy on Louisiana bayous and Texas beaches, 
but yielded at last, in 182 1, to the guns of American men-of- 
war. Disappearing before their iron threats he left only the 
memory of a romantic and checkered career to pique the 
story teller and inflame the imaginations of all lovers of the 
marvelous. 

The American navy, too, as has been shown, destroyed the 
iniquitous slave trade ; it protected American commerce in 
the Mediterranean, ruffled with wars and rumors of wars ; 
established the claim to superiority in beauty, strength, and 
excellence of build and discipline of the American " line-of- 
battle " ship ; laid the foundation of that long-continuing friend- 
ship with Russia that still exists, spite of the diverse manners 
and methods of two such differently-constituted nations ; 
forced the insolent Bourbon rulers of Naples to honesty and 
restitution ; carried the stars and stripes, in the Wilkes Explor- 



2oo ON THE HIGH SEAS. 

ing Expedition of 1839, farther within the limits of the Antarctic 
Circle than the vessels of any other nation had ever penetrated; 
first hoisted the flag of possession in the " territory " of Cali- 
fornia; and bore the same "meteor flag" in peaceful explora- 
tion across the storied land of Palestine until it floated above 
the sacred waters of Galilee and the consecrated river of 
Jordan. 

In the useless and inglorious, though victorious, war that 
the United States waged with Mexico the navy bore its part 
and gave to still another Perry the same meed of praise and 
pluck that has made that remarkable family famous in the naval 
annals of America. Tabasco and Tampico, Tuspan and Vera 
Cruz, Monterey and Los Angeles, with other and minor en- 
gagements, proved anew the daring and valor of the American 
blue-jackets and were a sort of medium ground whereon was 
displayed the mettle alike of the sea-fighters of an earlier school 
and those who were to win renown in the vaster conflict that 
was to come, before another quarter century had rolled away. 

And, even greater in its significance than these deeds of 
blood and struggle, was the peaceful opening of Japan to the 
world — <; one of the three signal events in American history," 
says Mr. Griffis "(the Declaration of Independence and the 
Arbitration of the Alabama claims being the other two), which 
have had the greatest influence upon the world at large." This 
was undertaken and accomplished by American seamen. 

The mid-year of the century marked an era of change in 
America's life. Progress was the order of the day. But scarce 
any other phase of the world's ways and methods experienced 
so large a share of this advance and change as did the sailor's 
life on ship and sea. Steam revolutionized the service and 
gave to commerce a new factor of advance and strength. The 



ON THE HIGH SEAS. 201 

temperance reform worked a moral change almost as great ; by 
the influence of so thorough a seaman as Commodore Matthew 
Perry duelling, the grog-ration and flogging were removed from 
the naval service and largely eliminated, because of this, from 
the mercantile marine as well. Jack himself, affected by the 
spirit of change, was not of the same calibre as heretofore. 
Life on the high seas took on a vastly different aspect and 
while in many respects this was to be for the better it was also 
from this changing era in America's ocean story that what we 
are pleased to call the decline of the American sailor may be 
said to date. 




CHAPTER X. 



FISHING SMACK AND WHALER. 




O wrest a precarious exist- 
ence from the most un- 
stable of elements ; to face 
danger, privation, suffering 
and death for the sake of 
returns that would seem far 
too weak and insufficient to 
counterbalance the greater 
risks at which they are ob- 
tained: — these have for 
many a year been the duty 
and the destiny of the American fishermen. Followers of a 
calling that is esteemed as among the lowliest of all the occu- 
pations of man they are, more than any other craftsmen, ever 
loyal to their chosen field of labor. 

And yet the very lowliness of this occupation of catching 
fish has ennobled it. From among the simple fisher-folk of 
Galilee, as if for the more emphatic denunciation of the arro- 
gance of Levite and of Pharisee, did the Divinest of teachers 
choose his ministers for the enlightenment of a world ; from 
the stench and slime of many a fishing craft has stepped a 
leader of men and in every land and upon every sea the fisher- 



FISHING SMACK AND WHALER. 203 

man has been esteemed the synonym of simplicity, honesty, 
hardihood and native common-sense. 

The fisher-lads of the Atlantic coast have had a record of 
fully three centuries and a half of ceaseless endeavor, priva- 
tion, poverty and loss. Storm and shipwreck have decimated 
their number, the fogs that have enshrouded their little craft 
and cut them off from all sight and sound of home are not 
more dense than is the cloud of social ostracism that seems to 
have kept them apart from the rest of the world ; and while 
ignorance and moral obliquity have been part of the atmos- 
phere of far too many American fishing-villages, love of home 
and of kindred has 'ever been the fisherman's lode-star. The 
stern realities of his daily struggle for existence are all the 
more stern because of this very regard for home and kin and 
the wail that rings through Kingsley's sad ballad : — 

" For men must work, and women must weep, 
And there's little to earn, and many to keep, 
Though the harbor-bar be moaning," — 

finds in the story of the American fisher-folk a kindred strain 
with that of their fellow workers of Brixham and Kinsale and 
the Hebrides, of Scheveningen and Tarragona and Etretet. 

The United States of America exist to-day because of this 
lowly and dangerous calling. Indeed, had the eternal fitness 
of things held sway, not the rapacious eagle but the succulent 
codfish would be the national emblem of America. 

It was because of this noble sea-food that the Western 
world was discovered. It was from one of these very New- 
foundland fishermen that the great admiral received his first 
knowledge of the new world. Years before Columbus steered 
from Palos the daring fishermen of Northwestern France knew 



2o 4 FISHING SMACK AND WHAIER. 

and frequented the American fishing banks from Labrador to 
Cape Cod. "This land," says Postel, "because of a most lucra- 
tive abundance of fish was visited by the Gauls, from the earli- 
est recorded time and they were accustomed to frequent it for 
sixteen hundred years before." Sebastian Cabot, so Peter 
Martyr declares, " himself named those lands Baccalaos because 
that in the sea thereabout he found so great multitudes of cer- 
tain bigge fishes, much like unto tunies (which the inhabitants 
call Baccalaos) that they sometimes stayed his shippes." Inves- 
tigation, however, shows that the Indian word baccalaos was not 
of native coinage but was really, as Lescarbot affirms, " from the 
imposition of our Basques, who call a codfish Bacaillos." " As 
far back as there is any remembrance," says this same authority, 
" and for several centuries our Dieppe, Maloins, Rochelois and 
other sailors of Havre de Grace, of Honfleur, and other places 
had made regular journeys into these waters for the purpose of 
cod-fishing." 

Known thus from the earliest ages, the pursuit and capture 
of " the imperial cod " has been for centuries the main cause of 
settlement, labor and strife along the North American coast. 
Even yet it is a bone of contention between the great Republic 
and the northern colonies of England. Protests and treaties, 
recrimination, retaliation and arbitration alike seem of no avail. 
And, indeed, until the inevitable happens and the English- 
speaking folk of the North American Continent are one con- 
federated people, the problem of the coast fishery — its rights, 
its limits and its returns — will continue unsettled and unsolved. 

But surely it has been a problem worth the solving. Stead- 
ily increasing in importance as population has grown and as 
appetite has been systematically developed the fishing industry 
of the United States is one of its most important means of 



FISHING SMACK AND WHAIER. 205 

livelihood. At the close of the Revolution it employed the 
services of 4,405 men and had a fleet of 665 vessels. In 1880 
the number of men employed had multiplied many-fold, the 
number of vessels in the fishing service amounted to 6,605, an< ^ 
the smaller but necessary boats in use counted 44,805. These 
gave a total tonnage of 208,297 and called for an invested capi- 
tal of nearly forty millions of dollars. The estimated value of 




CODFISHERS HAULING TRAWLS. 



the American fisheries on ocean, lakes and inland waters in 
1880 was nearly fifty millions of dollars, in 1883 it was nearly 
one hundred millions. 

This extensive industry now gives employment to almost a 
million men. In this estimate are included those who depend 
upon it for commercial support, those who follow it but a por- 
tion of the year and the families of the fishermen themselves. 



206 FISHING SMACK AND WHALER. 

And no craftsmen are more strictly American. Of the hundred 
thousand men who brave the seas in pursuit of its gleaming 
game scarcely more than ten per cent, are foreigners. * 

From the very start the American fishermen have been the 
most national, the most loyal of men. From their number 
came the most daring fighters in the days of intercolonial 
trouble. They formed the nucleus of the navy of the new 
republic in its days of revolution ; they proved the hardiest 
and most determined privateersmen in the struggle of " Eigh- 
teen twelve." Inured to a life of hardship, risk and trial, toss- 
ing and toiling in fragile boats on fickle waters, enveloped in 
fogs, bronzed by wind and sun, versed in the language of 
cloud and wave and sky, an unscientific but no less correct 
reader of the secrets and teachings of the sea, the fisherman 
where he should be the most versatile is the most uncom- 
municative of men. There is but little humor in his soul. 
Where the "jolly Jack tar" of the merchant service and the 
"blue-jacket" of the navy are careless, happy-go-lucky, improvi- 
dent and companionable fellows the fisherman is reticent, intro- 
spective, and clannish, with but few " yarns " as compared with 
his brethren of the "fo'casT" and the mess-table — the creature 
of a craft that is peculiarly a thing by itself apart. 

Much of this is doubtless due to the nature of the calling. 
The stern realities of a life that grows hard and monotonous 
as it is dangerous and depressing leave but scant room for that 
lightness of heart that comes only with a diversified occupation 
and a freedom from anxiety. The terrible death roll of the 
New England fisheries covers many a domestic tragedy and 

* The recent reports as to the presence of large numbers of " Province " people — Nova Scotians and others 
— on American fishing vessels would seem to qualify this statement. But, even acknowledging such a Canadian 
invasion, it is doubtful if there would be any marked difference in the aggregate. And, in time, perhaps, even 
Canadians may not be counted as foreigners. 



FISHING SMACK AND WHAIER. 207 

many a grave of ambition, of hope and of anticipation. The 
cod-fisher of the Northern Banks and the whale-fisher of the 
Pacfiic coast have but little time for the amenities and the 
humors of life. They stand too often face to face with death. 

But he who thus often faces the worst is none the less self- 
sacrificing, brave and heroic. Self-preservation may be the 
first law of the fisherman's nature, but it is one that none is 
readier or more willing to break, when occasion offers. Not 
all are of that selfish mould in which was cast Skipper Floyd 
Ireson of whom Whittier has sung : 

" Small pity for him I — He sailed away 
From a leaking ship, in Chaleur Bay, — 
Sailed away from a sinking wreck, 
With his own town's-people on her deck ! 
' Lay by ! lay by ! ' they called to him. 
Back he answered, ' Sink or swim ! 
Brag of your catch of fish again ! ' 
And off he sailed through the fog and rain ! 

Old Floyd Ireson, for his hard heart, 

Tarred and feathered and carried in a cart 
By the women of Marblehead." 

For, though the sauve qui petit rings far too often on the 
fisherman's field of battle when wind and wave and treacherous 
fog combine to threaten and destroy, and though Skipper Ireson 
has his modern counterpart in such small-souled men as that 
Maine fisherman who deserted his helper afloat in a dory in a 
killing fog just when he should have stood by to save him be- 
cause he had his fare of cod and was in haste to make port and 
a market, it is a fact that such lookers out for number one are 
but the unfrequent exceptions to the rule. They quickly get 
the cold shoulder. And, where Wall Street would judge such 
a nature as sharp, shrewd and Napoleonic, Marblehead and 



2 o8 FISHING SMACK AND WHAIER. 

Gloucester, the Hamptons and Cape Porpoise regard it as 
" worse than infidel." 

The day of the fishing village as such is past. The ten- 
dency to centralize that is so distinctively American has touched 
the fishing industry as it has every other phase of American 
life and the distributing facilities of the larger cities have sent 
many a once prosperous " fish wharf " in some little sea-settle- 
ment to ruin and decay. But wherever a community of fisher- 
folk still is found, where every " elderly sailor-man " is " skipper " 
by courtesy if not by actual rank and out from which, day after 
day, go the solitary occupants of dory or of whale boat to set or 
pull their trawls, there still exist many fireside legends of the 
bravery, the self-denial and the heroism of their fellow-craftsmen 
of to-day or of their ancestry in the days gone by. 

More exciting than the deep-sea fishery if not more hazard- 
ous ; more fascinating if not more profitable is the chase and 
capture of the whale. It is to cod-fishing as is the hunting of 
the lion and the elephant to that of the bear and the buffalo. 
Both sea-pursuits are full of the element of adventure but the 
actual danger that attends every whale chase invests that noble 
ocean sport with more of the attributes of daring and of risk 
than does the catching of cod, of halibut and of hake. 

The startling cry from the look-out of " There she blows ! " 
the rapid lowering of the boats with each man ready and alert 
for action, the race for the prey, the whirring harpoon, the stub- 
born tug of war 'twixt man and fish, the monster's death-strug- 
gle and the cheers of victory ; or, perhaps, the deadly retaliation 
of a monster brought to bay, boats wildly tossed in air, hunt- 
ers struggling for life in the sea, and the wild cries of despair 
and defeat — these surely partake more of the heroisms and 
hazards of the battle-field than of a prosaic and money-getting 



V ' 





FISHING SMACK AND WHALER. 211 

mercantile venture. The harpoon outranks in the romance of 
the sea the entanodincr seine and the hundred-fathom trawl. 

The whale-ship, or as seamen call the whaleman's craft, 
the " spouter," has for many a year been one of the peculiar 
features of ocean life. Dirty, evil-smelling, reeking with the 
marks of blubber, soot and grease, the " spouter" of the Atlantic 
and of the greater Pacific is and has ever been the home of 
danger, of endeavor, of risk and of final gain or loss. 

Even as the humble but laborious fisherman has been 
esteemed as lower in the social scale than one who goes before 
the mast in some little coasting vessel, so has the sailor on some 
trim merchantman or some stately man-of-war ever held in a 
certain contempt the less ship-shape and less cleanly "spouter" 
and her crew. 

" As soon as her anchor was down," says Mr. Dana, describ- 
ing one of these oil-getting craft encountered at sea, " we went 
aboard, and found her to be the whale-ship Wilmington and 
Liverpool Packet, of New Bedford, last from the ' off-shore 
ground,' with nineteen hundred barrels of oil. A 'spouter' 
we knew her to be, as soon as we saw her, by her cranes and 
boats, and by her stump top-gallant masts, and a certain slov- 
enly look to the sails, rigging, spars, and hull ; and when we 
got on board, we found everything to correspond — spouter 
fashion. She had a false deck, which was rough and oily, and 
cut up in every direction by the chimes of oil casks ; her rig- 
ging was slack, and turning white, paint worn off the spars and 
blocks, clumsy seizings, straps without covers, and ' homeward- 
bound splices ' in every direction. Her crew, too, were not in 
much better order, but looked more like fishermen and farmers 
than they did like sailors." 

Indeed, so adds Mr. Dana in a foot-note to this sailor's judg- 



212 FISHING SMACK AND WHAIER. 

ment given after a lapse of many years, "long observation has 
satisfied me that there are no better seamen, so far as handling 
a ship is concerned, and none so venturesome and skillful navi- 
gators, as the masters and officers of our whalemen. But 
never, either on this voyage or. in a subsequent visit to the 
Pacific and its islands, was it my fortune to fall in with a whale- 
ship whose appearance, and the appearance of whose crew, gave 
signs of strictness of discipline and seaman-like neatness." 

But untidiness, though it may be a crime in the sailor's 
calendar, is by no means a bar to all the virtues. By the very 
nature of his pursuit a whaleman can keep neither himself nor 
his ship free from the marks of his calling. Results, rather 
than appearances are the chief aim of the whaler's life of long 
absences and much toil and danger ; and the record of the palmy 
days of the whaling trade show how great were these results. 
In the year 1854, when the whaling fishery of the United States 
touched high-water mark, there were engaged in that industry 
six hundred and two ships and barks, twenty-eight brigs and 
thirty-eight schooners with a maximum tonnage of over two 
hundred thousand. More than ten thousand seamen were en- 
gaged in the pursuit and the yield in sperm oil, whale oil, whale 
bone and sperm candles ran well into the millions. 

From the very earliest days the American sailor had risked 
his all in this promising but dangerous pursuit. It had lured 
the wary Indian from the security of his home waters, as with 
crude wooden weapons in frail canoes of bark or log he braved 
the terrors of the open sea he so detested in the excitement of 
the chase and the hope of capture. Good Master Weymouth 
in the account of his voyage to America in 1605 says of these 
native whalers : " One especial thing is their manner of killing 
the whale — which they call powdawe ; and will describe his 



FISHING SMACK AND WHALER. 213 

form: how he bloweth the water; and that he is twelve fathoms 
long; and that they go in company of their king with a multi- 
tude of their boats; and strike him with a bone, made in fashion 
of a harping-iron fastened to a rope which they make great and 
strong of the bark of trees, which they veer out after him ; then 
all their boats come about him as he riseth above water; with 
their arrows they shoot him to death ; when they have killed 
him and dragged him to shore they call their lords together 
and sing a song of joy. And those chief . lords whom they call 
sagamores divide the spoil and give to every man a share, which 
they hang up about their houses for provisions." 

This co-operative system of whaling in vogue among the 
aborigines, appears to have been adopted among their white 
successors, for in every whaling venture of record every one 
employed, from master to cabin-boy, seems to have gone in on 
shares. In the earlier days when the great fish had his home 
in native waters the chase was followed almost in the shadow 
of the home-tree. But, as demand grew, the home supply 
diminished and year by year the pursuit of the whale was 
carried farther and farther away from the old home fishing- 
grounds. The cruises grew longer and longer. Days turned 
to weeks, weeks to months and months grew to years as fishing- 
grounds became more remote and ships sailed away into almost 
unknown seas. The young fellow who had left his country 
home and shipped as a green hand on the "spouter" came back 
from a two or three years' whaling cruise an experienced and 
hardy whaler, well-stocked with yarns drawn from his three 
years of absence, labor and adventure. 

And how much of labor, danger and adventure a three 
years' whaling cruise meant the voluminous records of the ser- 
vice and the still greater mass of unwritten "yarns" of the 



214 



FISHING SMACK AND WHALER. 



sailors themselves amply testify. They tell of long cruises far 
away from home, of weeks — of months even — of profitless 
and unrewarded search for game, of the inspiriting cry that at 
last announces the prey, of the call to the boats, the attack, the 
struggle and the capture ; they tell of the laborious process of 
cutting, extracting, trying and barreling ; they tell, too, among 




THE HEAT OF BATTLE. 



all the minutiae of a whaleman's life, the more stirring and 
dramatic phases: the danger, the daring and the fight for life 
that so often enters into the whaler's experiences. 

Of these latter incidents records and "yarns" are full. But 
none is more interesting than that graphic account of his hand- 
to-fluke fight for life told by an old whaler, hailing from one of 



FISHING SMACK AND WHALER. 215 

the Long Island " Hamptons." It was off somewhere in the 
Northern waters that his second mate fastened to one of the 
bis fellows known as a " riadit " whale. "The critter was dis- 
posed to be ugly," says the old skipper, " so I pulled up and 
fastened to her also. I went into the bow and struck my lance 
into her shoulder-blade. It pierced so deep into the bone that 
I couldn't draw it out. The whale gave a great quiver and 
squirm and, turning a little, she cut her flukes and took the 
boat amidships. The boys all jumped for it as the boat rolled 
over with her broadsides all stove in, and I cut the line just in 
time to save being run under with a kink. I crawled up on 
the bottom of the overturned boat with the rest of the boys 
and suns out to the second mate who wanted to cut his line 
and pick us up, to go ahead and kill the critter; 'we're all 
right,' says I. But the next minute I was ready enough to 
sing a different tune. For, all of a sudden, the big fish turned 
and coming up on the full breach struck our wreck a blow that 
sent us all sky-high. As we came down into the water the 
whale's whole bulk came clown on us sideways, like a small 
avalanche. Risdit and left she cut the corners of her flukes 
in a regular spite and in the fuss and clutter and 'white water' 
that she made two of my poor fellows went down. 

" Here was more than I bargained for; but worse was yet 
to come. That whale seemed to have a special spite against 
me. She came feeling around for me with her nose and as she 
passed me where I was trying to swim out of her way I grabbed 
hold of the warp and let her tow me along a little way until 
she slackened speed. Then I dove under just in time to clear 
her flukes while she threshed away in a fury at the broken boat. 
She had just about finished smashing the wreck into splinters 
when she caught sight of me again and made for me on a half 



2 i6 FISHING SMACK AND WHALER. 

breach. Bang ! that great head dropped on me again, driving 
me half stunned, deep under the water. So the fight kept on. 
Again and again would she run her head in the air, fall on my 
back and drive me bruised and battered far down under the 
water. Sometimes I would dive to clear her fluke and some- 
times I would grab the line attached to the maddened brute 
and hold on for dear life until a sweep of the flukes sent me 
under. The boats could get no chance to pick me up; the 
minute that whale saw them coming for me she would leave off 
worrying me and make a dash at my rescuers. How I kept 
alive is more than I can understand. My legs became para- 
lyzed, my strength gave out, I could not catch hold of the lines 
that were thrown out to me, everything was growing dim and 
far-off, when with a sudden rush the mate's boat made one last 
dash for me and by just the narrowest squeak hauled me into 
the boat more dead than alive. Then the mate who was a 
plucky chap and had 'got his mad up' put me on board ship 
and went for the fish aoain. Watching his chance he o;ot a set 

o o o 

on the whale just over her shoulder-blade and sent the red flag 
into the air. This tamed her. She lagged around awhile and 
then settled away dead. It was weeks before I grew well from 
my hurts — but then, you see, we got that oil." 

It was such pluck as this that followed the whale into every 
sea, that ran every risk so grand a chase presents and that 
made the mettle of the American whaler known and respected 
among his fellows. Unsuccessful voyages, shipwreck, priva- 
tion, and all the terrors of the sea could not deter the "spouter" 
from his accepted calling and only the decline of the whale- 
trade itself, as new discoveries gave to the world something of 
more value and less expense than oil and whalebone, drove the 
American whaler from the seas. 



. FISHING SMACK AND WHALER. 217 

This was the pluck — recklessness and hardihood, some 
mioht call it — that exhibited itself in one muscular American 
whaler who, off St. Helena, deliberately " tackled " a " right 
whale " with only a single lance and harpoon in his boat. 
Carried overboard by the kinks he was given up for drowned, 
but he clung to the submerged line and was dragged into the 
boat by his comrades. "Well, Jube, how did you like it down 
there ? " he was asked after he had come back to life. " Well, 
boys," he replied coolly, "it's a lonesome road to travel; there's 
neither mile-stones nor guide-boards as I could see." 

An old whaling captain still lived in Nantucket a few years 
ago who could boast that the keel of his ship had never touched 
bottom, that he was never at sea a day without going aloft 
except in a gale of wind, that he had never lost a man by acci- 
dent or abandonment, or had one off duty by sickness for more 
than a week, that he had never lost but one spar though mak- 
ing many short and quick voyages, that he had never returned 
without a full cargo of sperm oil, and that he had instructed 
and trained to his own calling sixteen apprentice-boys taken 
from the lower walks of life every one of whom had risen to rank 
and standing in the whaling service. This was an exceptional 
record and yet it has been equalled in one way or another by 
scores of American captains who saw, in the ships and the crews 
they had handled, many a craft of which to be proud and many 
a man who could add weight and distinction to the name of the 
American whaler. 

Years ago in the South Pacific, so says Mr. Scammon, 
an English, French, Portuguese and American ship lay becalmed 
within a mile of one another. A whale was raised, and at once 
from each ship a boat started in pursuit. By superior pulling 
the American passed in succession the Portuguese and the 



218 FISHING SMACK AND WHALER. 

French boats and at last came within ten rods of the English 
crew. A mile and a half ahead rose the whale. " There she 
blows ! " came the cry from the boat-steerer. "An eighty-bar- 
rel one ; dead ahead ! Give way, lads ; give way ! " " The 
English boat and ours," says the American boat-steerer from 
whom Mr. Scammon had the story, " had exactly the same 
number of stout, active hands. Seeing us pass the other boats 
the Britishers put all their strength and force to the oar. 
Slowly but surely we gained on them and so great was our ex- 
citement over the race that we were almost over the spot where 
the whale had last blowed before we thought of it. As the two 
boats came abreast the English boat-steerer dropped on to my 
peculiar way of throwing extra weight upon my oar and at- 
tempted the same tactics. But he threw too much force upon 
it and almost immediately snapped it off short at the lock. 
Thus disabled he could only growl at his bad luck while we 
shot by him like a flash. At that moment the whale blowed 
again only a few rods away. The next moment we were fast; 
and as a reward for our race we were able to stow down eighty- 
five barrels of oil and shorten our voyage by two months." 

Many another yarn could be spun hinting at the pluck and 
peril, the dangers and distresses, the worries and the victories 
of a whalers life : Of boats dragged off at a fearful pace by the 
struck whale, of ships " stolen " and towed away bodily, of boats 
crunched like egg-shells in the massive jaws of an infuriated 
whale, of overturned sailors actually clambering on the back 
of the monster fish and clinging there for dear life, of many a 
moving accident and hair-breadth 'scape, of streaks of luck and 
months of failure and defeat. 

The American fisherman, be he cod-fisher or whaler, has 
played an important part in the history of his country. He has 




'•FUR MEN MUST WORK AND WOMEN MUST WEEP. 



FISHING SMACK AND WHALER. 221 

founded States, established towns and cities, and been a source 
at once of profit and of advancement to a growing nation. 
Gloucester and Marblehead, New Bedford, the Long Island 
Hamptons, Nantucket and Hudson all owe their origin and 
development to the toil of the hardy fisher-folk. The common- 
wealth of Massachusetts was a direct outgrowth of the fishino- 
industries of an early day. It was a serious question with the 
first settlers whether the Cape Cod peninsula should not be 
made the main place of settlement because of its many advan- 
tages as a fishing and whaling station. Upon the Atlantic sea- 
board many a flourishing community has been the out-growth 
of the labors and the need of this class of American seamen, 
while on the Pacific coast the great city of San Francisco 
to-day counts its fishing trade as supplying one tenth of its 
fifty millions of annual exports. 

The deep-sea fisheries of the North Atlantic " Banks," the 
once enormous whaling interests of the towns of Southeastern 
Massachusetts, of the Long Island and Connecticut ports, the 
shad fisheries of the Hudson, Connecticut, Delaware and Poto- 
mac rivers, the oyster beds of Chesapeake and Delaware bays, the 
now declining menhaden fisheries of the Long Island and New 
Jersey coasts, the fisheries for red snapper, mullet, pompone, 
grunt and Spanish mackerel on the Southern and Gulf coasts, 
the yet undeveloped but vastly promising salmon, seal and cod- 
fisheries of the Pacific coast, and the great lake fisheries of 
Erie, Huron, Michigan and Superior make and have made for 
many and many a year the American fisherman one of the 
most important factors in the progress and development of 
America's story. His welfare and his conflicting^ interests, as 
against those of his rivals and Canadian neighbors, have formed 
the subject for much diplomacy, much international dispute, and 



222 FISHING SMACK AND WHALER. 

much wasted eloquence in congress and in parliament. His 
"rights" have furnished the basis for four treaties with England 
(those of 1783, 181S, 1854 and 1S71) while still another, that of 
1887, hangs undecided in the balance. 

Third in the order of the fish-producing countries of the 
world the United States contributes one seventh of the grand 
total of one hundred and twenty-five millions of dollars that 
stands as the annual value of the maritime and inland fisheries 
of the globe. And spite of the decline of much that was once a 
leading factor in the great fisheries of the world, the American 
sailor who pursues on river, lake and sea his humble but time- 
honored calling of a catcher of fish, may feel that still to-day the 
words of the English statesman Edmund Burke, though inspired 
by the position of the American fisherman of a century ago, 
have bearing and application to himself and the brethren of 
his craft : " No sea but is vexed by their fisheries. No climate 
that is not witness to their toils. Neither the perseverance of 
Holland, nor the activity of France, nor the dexterous and firm 
sagacity of English enterprise ever carried this most perilous 
mode of hardy industry to the extent to which it has been 
pushed by this recent people." 

On fishing-smack and whaler, on sloop, on schooner and on 
black-hulled sealing steamer, on dory, whale-boat and diminu- 
tive lake and river craft, careless of his condition and reckless 
often of his life, the American fisherman busies himself at his 
dangerous calling, content with little and never expecting much 
in this world's goods. While politicians wrangle and dispute 
over his " rights " and rumors of war spring from the conflict- 
ing international interests involved in his exact position he still 
serenely sets his trawl or flings his harpoon wherever the " har- 
vest of the sea" seems most fair and promising. His has been 



FISHING SMACK AND WHAIER. 22J 

a record of centuries of toil and patient endeavor that the great- 
est of nations may well esteem as worthy commendation and 
reward. And yet so philosophic and reticent is the fisherman's 
nature that, whether his "rights" may embroil two nations in 
war or be determined only by long and exhaustive arbitration 
this deep-sea hunter is apparently the least interested party to 
the strife.. Unruffled and undisturbed, he pursues his callino- — 
voicing in his own peculiar way that seldom finds expression in 
words, the contented spirit that Whittier has put into verse : 



',' Our wet hands spread the carpet 

And light the fires of home ; 
From our fish as in the old time, 

The silver coin shall come. 
As the demon fled the chamber 

Where the fish of Tobit lay, 
So ours from all our dwellings 

Shall frighten Want away. 



Though the mist upon our jackets 

In the bitter air congeals, 
And our lines wind stiff and slowly 

From off the frozen reels ; 
Though the fog be dark around us 

And the storm blow high and loud, 
We will whistle down the wild wind, 

And laugh beneath the cloud. 



In the darkness as in daylight, 

On the water as on land, 
God's eye is looking on us, 

And beneath us is his hand ! 
Death will find us soon or later, 

On the deck or in the cot ; 
And we cannot meet him better 

Than in working out our lot. 



224 



FISHING SMACK AND 1VHAIER. 



Hurrah! hurrah! the west wind 

Comes freshening down the bay, 
The rising sails are filling — 

Give way, my lads, give way ! 
Leave the coward landsman clinging 

To the dull earth, like a weed — 
The stars of heaven shall guide us, 

The breath of heaven shall speed ! " 

When the account is made up in the orderly story of the 
centuries that is yet to be written the historian, as he weighs 
and epitomizes all the industries of man that have been factors 
in the gradual development and upbuilding of a world, must 
accord not only praise but honor, not only respect but glory, to 
these patient, laborious, simple-mannered and stout-hearted 
sea-folk who have made successful and important the calling 
and the name of the American fisherman. 




CHAPTER XI. 



ARCTIC SERVICE AND INLAND WATERS. 




OUR thorough-going sailor, 
rude and unlettered though 
he m a y be, never allows 
himself to be esteemed an 
ignoramus. The confine- 
men t s and restraints of 
shipboard may make him 
careless as to the proprie- 
ties when ashore, but his 
manifold experiences in 
knocking about the world, 
his habit of thoughtfulness induced by the long watches at sea 
and his protracted isolation from the rest of the world result, 
naturally, in no small amount of native common-sense, a cer- 
tain feeling of superiority over the " poor chaps ashore," and a 
readiness to find a reason for all things. 

Illogical and superstitious he may be, crude in his methods 
and lame in his theorizing, but the sailor is still a good deal of 
a philosopher, and may sometimes teach even those who esteem 
themselves as far above him in worldly wisdom. He has, too, 
underneath a certain expressed contempt for all landsmen and 
for the ways and methods of the world at home, a real admiration 

225 



226 ARCTIC SERVICE AND INI AND WATERS. 

for " book larnin' " and the things it teaches. The records of 
every voyage for purposes of exploration, research or scientific 
investigation show how ready is the sailor to ship for such a 
voyage and how deeply interested he becomes in the objects of 
the expedition. 

The seamen on the ships of Columbus doubtless deemed 
themselves able to give the great admiral " points " as to his 
venture and from the days of the Santa Maria to the Blake no 
expedition for other than strictly mercantile purposes but has 
had its seamen ready to descant upon the merits of the cause 
to which the voyage was pledged, with certain deductions there- 
from which would astonish the learned men in whose interest 
the ships have sailed away. 

There came as passenger to the Pilgrim — now famous as 
the ship in which Mr. Dana made his memorable voyage — a 
certain Harvard professor bent upon studying the botany, con- 
chology and ornithology of the California coast. At first, says 
Mr. Dana, he was a problem to the crew. They called him 
" Old Curious " from his zeal for curiosities and some of them 
said that he was crazy, and that his friends let him go about 
and amuse himself in this way. Why else, they argued, a rich 
man (sailors call every man rich who does not work with his 
hands, and who wears a long coat and cravat) should leave a 
Christian country and come to such a place as California to pick 
up shells and stones, they could not understand. One of them, 
however, Mr. Dana declares, who had seen something more of 
the world ashore, set all to rights, as he thought. " O 'vast 
there! " he said. "You don't know anything about them craft. 
I've seen them colleges and know the ropes. They keep all 
such things for cur'osities, and study 'em, and have men a-pur- 
pose to go and get 'em. This old chap knows what he's about. 



ARCTIC SERVICE AND INLAND WATERS. 227 

He a'n't the child you take him for. He'll carry all these things 
to the college, and if they're better 'n any they've had afore, 
he'll be head of the college. Then, by and by, somebody else 
'11 go after some more, and if they beat this one he'll have to 
go again, or else give up his berth. That's the way they do it. 
This old covey knows the ropes. He has worked a traverse 
over 'em and come 'way out here where nobody 's ever been 
afore, and where they'll never think of coming." This expla- 
nation, says Mr. Dana, satisfied Jack ; and as it raised the 
Professor's credit and was " near enough to the truth for 
common purposes " he did not disturb it. 

Scientific societies, governments and interested individuals 
are, as this old salt declared, always ready to " work a traverse " 
over other societies, governments and individuals and hence the 
information of the world progresses and sailors are given oppor- 
tunities to ship on queer cruises into strange latitudes. The 
records of such expeditions for scientific research as those of 
the Beagle, the Challenger, the Bibb and the Blake show the 
interest that even the commonest sailor on board took in the 
voyage and its results. Professor Agassiz, in his latest book 
(" Three Cruises of the Blake" ) bears testimony to the interest 
displayed by the crew in the professor's dredging for the flora 
and fauna of the " abyssmal realm " of the deep sea — a duty, 
as he says, "so foreign to their usual routine." 

Where once the sailors of Columbus and the earlier navi- 
gators needed to be driven on board the caravels that were to 
bear them upon a secret errand to an unknown shore the sea- 
men of to-day are ready and anxious to ship on expeditions 
that are to open new realms to commerce, to discover new forms 
of nature and to wrest the closely-locked secrets of some 
vaguely-known or inaccessible land. 



228 ARCTIC SERVICE AND INLAND WATERS. 

It was the seemly and courteous behavior of the blue-jackets 
of Perry's squadron that in 1852 helped to make of a great 
and mysterious nation a friendly power and to open Japan to 
civilization and the world ; it was quite as much the interest 
and efforts of the seamen as of the officers that made so nota- 
ble a success of Commodore Wilkes's expedition of search and 
discovery to the far southern seas, in 1838 — the first maritime 
exploring expedition ever undertaken by the United States Gov- 
ernment ; that circumnavigated and surveyed the " sacred river " 
Jordan and the Dead Sea; that laid the first Atlantic cable; 
carried the " mercy ships " Jamestown and Griswold to famine- 
stricken Ireland and to starving Lancashire; and pushed again 
and again the prows of exploring squadrons against the icy 
ramparts of the northern pole. 

It is in this latter field of enterprise that the American 
sailor has especially distinguished himself. The problem of 
a northwest passage has for centuries interested the world. 
From the days when, seeking "a nearer avenue to Southern 
Asia," Sebastian Cabot understood " by reason of the sphere 
that if I should sail by way of the northwest I should by a 
shorter tract come into India," and when Martin Frobisher 
declared this to be " the only thing left undone in the world 
whereby a notable mind might be made famous and fortunate," 
the determination of this nearer avenue to Asia through the 
waters of the frozen North has been a labor in which many a 
venturesome mariner has risked life and courted death. 

The half-mythical " Boston ship " of 1639, the Philadelphia 
schooner Argo in 1753, the Virginia expedition in the Diligence 
in 1 77 j , and Captain Taylor's Rhode Island sloop of 1753 seem 
to have been the earliest of the strictly American explorations 
in search of this baffling passage to the West. 




IN ARCTIC SEAS. 



ARCTIC SERVICE AND INLAND WATERS. 231 

In the year 1845 the sudden and mysterious disappearance 
of Sir John Franklin and his ships roused the world to a fresh 
interest in the secrets of that terrible land about the pole and 
gave the name of the lost English captain a foremost place on 
the tragic but honorable roll of the martyrs to science. At 
once expeditions for his recovery were organized in England 
and America and what is known as the " First Grinnell 
Expedition " sailed from New York on the twenty-second of 
May, 1850. 

This, though sailing under the sanction of the United 
States Government, was really a personal contribution to the 
twin causes of mercy and science by Mr. Henry Grinnell. He 
was a philanthropic merchant of New York City, who supplied 
the two vessels and the means for the voyage, or as his memorial 
to Congress expressed it : " Your memorialist has from his own 
resources provided for the principal expenses of the expedition. 
It would strengthen his hope of ultimate success and facilitate 
greatly the object in view, if the act of Congress should 
authorize the word to be passed in the navy for volunteers 
among the men, as well as the officers, limiting to fifteen the 
number for each vessel. Should the pay and naval rations be 
deemed insufficient by the crew, your memorialist wishes to 
give from his own purse such additional sums as may be 
proper and satisfactory to the volunteers." 

Such an example of philanthropy was not to fail of recogni- 
tion. The " word was passed " in the navy for volunteers and 
it was answered, as Mr. Grinnell says, "with a zeal and noble- 
ness of spirit beyond praise, without the promise or hope of 
reward." Indeed it is a tribute to the manliness of the 
American sailor that finds expression in the remark of 
Admiral Osborn, one of the most distinguished of England's 



232 ARCTIC SERVICE AND INLAND WATERS. 

Arctic navigators : " I was charmed to hear that before sailing, 
officers and men had signed a bond not to claim under any 
circumstances the twenty thousand pounds reward which the 
British Government had offered." 

The first Grinnell expedition failed of its main purpose — 
the discovery and relief of Franklin. So too did the second 
Grinnell expedition dispatched in 1853 under the command of 
that dauntless physician in the United States Navy — Elisha 
Kent Kane. It failed, but the name of Kane is inseparably 
linked with that of Franklin and the cause of Arctic discovery. 

But as Professor Nourse says, the "overruling circumstances 
detract nothing from the worthiness of the original purposes of 
these expeditions, or from the fidelity of the officers and men 
engaged in them." These and the succeeding efforts to find 
the open polar sea or to rescue lost explorers, cast away in the 
cold, have added to the scientific and geographical knowledge 
of the world, have encroached more and more upon the stub- 
born fastnesses of the icy North and have strengthened that 
bond of international charity and good-will that must, in time, 
obliterate the strifes and jealousies of men. To these results 
the American sailor has contributed his share in fidelity, 
patience and manly endeavor and though the record of Arctic 
discovery is marked with disaster and checkered with death 
not one of the brave fellows who sailed northward in the 
causes of research or relief would, if they could, regret the 
impulse that led them to volunteer for such peculiar and 
dangerous service. 

Following the " Second Grinnell Expedition " to the Pole 
in which Dr. Kane laid the seeds alike of his death and of his 
fame, came the Relief Expedition for his recovery, sent out by 
Congress in May, 1855, under the command of Lieutenant 



ARCTIC SERVICE AND INI AND WATERS. 233 

Hartstene in the bark Release and the propeller Arctic. This, 
as we know, was successful. In August, 1855, Commander 
John Rodgers in the sloop of war Vincennes, passing north- 
ward through Behring Strait, located Wrangel Land in the 
high latitudes to the northwest of Alaska and, returning, 
marked the soundings of Behring Strait for the guidance 
of succeeding mariners. In July, i860, Dr. Isaac I. Hayes 
who had already penetrated the " Land of Desolation " with 
Dr. Kane led an exploring party to the northeast in the fore 
and aft schooner United States, discovered what he believed to 
be the "open Polar Sea," unfurled the American flag on Cape 
Lieber (in latitude eighty-one degrees and thirty minutes), the 
highest northern point then reached by man, and sighted still 
further to the north the inaccessible headland of Cape Union. 

The next American attempt to storm the pole was the ro- 
mantic and tragic endeavor of Captain C. F. Hall. A landsman 
and not a sailor, earning only a bare livelihood as an engraver 
in the far inland city of Cincinnati, his sympathy for the lost 
Englishman Franklin awakened within him " an enthusiasm for 
the search and for Arctic Exploration which failed only with 
his life." Three times he made the effort. His first trip was 
made entirely without companions, vessel or crew from the port 
of New London in Connecticut in May, i860, whence he was 
conveyed North with his slender outfit of boats, sledges, instru- 
ments and provisions by the generosity and financial help of 
two American merchants, Grinnell of New York and Haven of 
New London. His second expedition undertaken solely on his 
own responsibility and made by himself and two Esquimaux sailed 
from New London in July, 1864. His third and final expedi- 
tion was made in the year 187 1 in the United States steamer 
Polaris, sent out under the authority of Congress and with the 



234 ARCTIC SERVICE AND INI AND WATERS. 

landsman, now " Captain " Hall, as commander. With it sailed 
a competent scientific corps and a crew of fourteen seamen. 
.This national recognition was in itself a triumph of patient en- 
thusiasm. The results of Hall's three voyages, occupying nine 
years of exploration and effort, gave an impetus to Arctic dis- 
covery, added much to the knowledge of the land of ice, carried 
the American flag to the farthest north, discovered traces only, 
of the fate of Franklin and his men and added yet another to the 
list of those indomitable explorers who have died martyrs to 
science for the good of man. 

Lieutenant Schwatka in 1878 with four comrades penetrated 
far toward the pole still searching for the remains and records 
of the Franklin expedition and in July, 1879, Lieutenant 
G. W. De Long, with a crew of thirty-five officers and men sailed 
from San Francisco to the Arctic Ocean on the bark-rigged 
steam-yacht Jeannette, backed by the private enterprise of James 
Gordon Bennett. The expedition ended, as so many others had 
done, in disaster and death. Crushed in a relentless ice-pack 
to the northward of Behring Strait, the Jeannette was abandoned 
and a long and miserable flight for life ended for De Long and 
his gallant company of American sailors in starvation and death 
on the desolate shores of Siberia. 

To discover and relieve the lost Jeannette three expeditions 
were dispatched to the North, and following these the expe- 
dition of Lieutenant Greely to the eastern gateway to the pole 
and of Lieutenant Ray to the westward, with the relief expe- 
ditions dispatched for their succor and return, complete the 
list of American endeavors to force the secret of the great 
Northern land. 

Whether or not the benefits derived from these expeditions 
in behalf of scientific and geographical information are com- 




JIM BLUDSO. 



ARCTIC SERVICE AND INLAND WATERS. 237 

mensurate with the terrible cost at which they have been ob- 
tained, it is certain that the end is not yet. The " saddening 
shadows " of the Jeannette and the horrible experiences of 
Greely cannot dampen the ardor of the explorer or the enthu- 
siasm of the scientist. " Volunteers from naval and civil life," 
says Professor Nourse, " are still ready to offer themselves for 
the fascinations of the most daring Arctic adventure and Arc- 
tic exploration will not soon be abandoned." The attractions 
of the unknown overtop caution, comfort, danger and the risk 
of death. 

To this long record of honorable labor in behalf of the 
world's enlightenment the American sailor has contributed the 
greater share of endeavor, endurance and fortitude. Command- 
ers might plan and philanthropists assist but without the work 
and the willingness of the common sailor little could have been 
accomplished. From the pioneer davs of American Arctic dis- 
covery when, one hundred and thirty years ago, Captain Swaine 
of Philadelphia was twice repulsed by the icy barriers which 
he sousrht to force in his little schooner Aro-o to the hour when 
in May, 1882, Lieutenant Lockwood flung the stars and stripes 
to the icy breezes at the farthest northern point ever reached 
by man, the story of the American sailor's share in the advance 
of polar exploration is one continual record of earnest and will- 
ing endeavor in the face of hardship, privation, peril, starvation 
and death. 

It is a relief to turn from this picture of desolation and dis- 
aster to one of marvelous progress and success ; and, surely, no 
completer transition could be made than to read, after the story 
of the ever-frozen seas of the far North, the story of the never- 
frozen seas, land-locked within the great American continent. 

Northeasterly, through the narrow water-way that separates 



258 ARCTIC SERVICE AND INI AND WATERS. 

the State of New York from the Province of Ontario pass 
ever, with ceaseless flow, three quarters of all the fresh waters 
of the globe. The great St. Lawrence River, so says Sir Charles 
Hartley, " taken in connection with the great lakes, offers to 
trading vessels the most magnificent system of inland naviga- 
tion in the world." 

And these " trading vessels " have certainly availed them- 
selves of the river's generous offer. In 1887 the shipping of 
the United States on the great lakes included 1,286 sailing and 
1,225 steam vessels, 549 canal boats and 84 barges — a total of 
3,144 water craft with a total carrying capacity of 783,722 tons. 
Canada's lake shipping swelled this total by some nine hundred 
vessels and 120,000 tons. 

Add to these figures the shipping statistics of the Mississippi 
and other Western rivers, which in 1887 showed a total of 1,293 
sailing craft with a carrying capacity of 327,405 tons and the 
inland commerce of the United States shows an aggregate 
footing of nearly forty-five hundred vessels capable of carrying 
over eleven hundred thousand tons. 

This inland commerce has been mainly of recent growth. 
At once the cause and the result of Western immigration the 
navigation, commerce and fisheries of the great Northern lakes 
and Western rivers have called into existence a class of busy 
workers as distinct from the sailors and fishermen of the ocean 
courses as are the white fish, the pickerel and the sturgeon of 
the lakes distinct from the cod, the halibut and the whale of 
the great salt seas. 

Indeed the salt-water sailor is quite as ignorant of- the 
manners and methods of the fresh-water mariner as is the 
landsman himself. And he holds, withal, a certain unconcealed 
contempt for the inland seas which his unsalted brother navi- 



ARCTIC SERVICE AND INLAND WATERS. 239 

gates. The times have not materially changed since that dog- 
matic seaman, old Cap, of Cooper's Leather-Stocking Tales, 
sneered at Ontario. 

" As for this bit of a lake," he growled to his niece as he 
looked out upon it from the deck of the Scud, " you know my 
opinion of it already, and I wish to disparage nothing. No 
real seafarer disparages anything; but hang me if I regard this 
here Ontario, as they call it, as more than so much water in a 

ship's scuttled-butt And look at that water ! 

It is like milk in a pan, with no more motion now than there is 
in a full hogshead before the bung is started. No man ever 
saw the ocean like this lake." And when his niece would have 
called his attention to the ripples on the shore and the surf on 
the rocks the old sailor broke in contemptuously : " All poetry, 
girl ! One may call a bubble a ripple if he will, and washing 
decks a surf ; but Lake Ontario is no more the Atlantic than a 
Powles Hook periagua is a first-rate." Then looking at their 
young lake skipper, old Cap remarked : " That Jasper is a fine 
lad. He only wants instruction to make a man of him." " Do 
you think him ignorant ? " asks Mabel, who is far from holding 
that slighting opinion of the young sailor. " He is ignorant," 
her uncle responds ; " he is ignorant as all must be who navi- 
gate an inland water like this. He can make a flat-knot and a 
timber-hitch, it is true ; but he has no more notion of crowning 
a cable, now, or of a carrickbend, than you have of catting an 
anchor." 

But all readers of " The Pathfinder " must remember how 
old Cap modified his censure and changed his opinion when, 
after he had nearly wrecked the Scud on a lee shore in a furious 
lake gale, young Jasper assumed command and saved the vessel. 

That very incident alone, conceived by one who had known 



2 4 o ARCTIC SERVICE AND IN I AND WATERS. 

and studied the great lakes from boyhood, is an indication of the 
difference between fresh-water and salt-water navigation. 

Indeed, the peculiar nature and composition of these inland 
waters call for a seamanship quite as skillful and fully as daring 
as do the ocean currents. 

Since first, two hundred and ten years ago, the Chevalier 
La Salle beat up across Lake Ontario in his little vessel of 
ten tons — "the first ship that had ever sailed on that fresh- 
water sea" — the dangers and difficulties of lake navigation have 
brought many a ship and sailor to grief and educated a race of 
brave and hardy inland sailors. Necessity triumphs over every 
obstacle ; and the growing demands of occupation and develop- 
ment have created an inland marine that outranks in extent 
and efficiency all the other fresh-water shipping of the world. 
Great cities have sprung into existence upon the lake shores. 
Buffalo is the commercial centre of the inland seas of North 
America. Chicago is the largest grain and pork market in 
the world. In 1883 over twelve thousand* vessels cleared from 
Chicago's harbor. Sandusky has the largest fresh-water fish 
market in the United States. Detroit is the centre of a great 
and growing foreign and coastwise commerce. Milwaukee's 
shipping entries and interests equal those of Baltimore, of Bos- 
ton or of Philadelphia. And Duluth, " the zenith city of the 
unsaltecl seas," is rapidly fulfilling the prophecies that, made 
not so many years ago, excited only laughter and ridicule. 

To all this progress the American sailor of the inland marine 
has contributed an important share. If his voyages are shorter 
than those of the ocean " tar " his work is more laborious, for 
he must be both sailor and stevedore. The growth of steam 
navigation has, on the lakes as on the sea, materially lessened 
the proportionate increase of sailing vessels but the white wings 



ARCTIC SERVICE AND INLAND WATERS. 243 

still outnumber the smoke-stacks. Alert and watchful when 
winds arise and dangers threaten the fresh-water sailor is as skill- 
ful in emergency and as brave in actual peril as is his brother 
of the sea and the record of heroism in storm and in shipwreck 
can yield no greater meed of praise to the one than to the 
other. There have been terrible scenes of wreck and disaster 
on the lakes and the story of the loss of the Lady Elgin on 
Lake Michigan is as full of terror and as eloquent in manliness 
and heroism as is that of the Arctic, of the Austria or of the 
Ville de Havre. 

What is said of the lake sailor is also true of the navigators 
of the great Western rivers. The Mississippi boatman has 
changed materially since the days of the flat boat and the great 
passenger steamers. The railway that annihilates space destroys 
also the picturesque element of the old days on the Ohio and 
the Mississippi. But commerce in heavy commodities has 
greatly increased and the coal and grain of the North go down 
stream in great quantities while cotton, sugar and molasses 
come up stream from the South. 

Here the " sailor " (who, after all, is not so much a sailor as 
a deck hand) yields in interest and importance to the engineer 
and the pilot. The pilots of the great river steamers are practi- 
cally the only navigators of the Mississippi, the Missouri and 
the Ohio. " No class of public servants," says a recent writer, 
"stands in a position of greater trust and responsibility. It is 
difficult to conceive of a more dangerous task than that of 
guiding one of these gigantic steamboats along the twisting, 
shifting, treacherous channel of the river. The pilots are a 
vastly better set of men than those who followed the profession 
ten and twenty years ago. The improvement is in their morals, 
their education and their usefulness." 



244 ARCTIC SERVICE AND INLAND WATERS. 

" Mark Twain's " quaint and characteristic stories of boat- 
ing on the Mississippi during the old days that have now 
passed away are full of humor and bristle with interest. His 
record of his own experience as a "cub pilot" faithfully pic- 
tures, even in the midst of the facetiae with which he surrounds 
it, the education, the trials and the manly training of the young 
river-navigator, thirty years ago. 

The stories of the coolness, the bravery and the fidelity of 
the Western pilot are many. In a life of constant care, anxiety 
and hazard a man who feels the importance of his post and the 
responsibility that devolves upon him must, if he is really a 
man, develop the manly qualities. 

And what is true of the pilot of one of those light-draught, 
high-piled river steamers is also true of the engineer. With 
the pilot he really divides the responsibility that rests upon the 
officers of those majestic-appearing but all too flimsily-built 
crafts, so many of which have proved but tinder-boxes and death 
traps in the hour of fire or collision. 

The nerve and faithfulness to his trust displayed by Jim 
Bludso the hero of one of John Hay's strongest "dialect bal- 
lads " is not the mere creation of a poet's brain. The engine 
room and pilot house are full of just such stories of dogged 
but glorious heroism. 

"Jim Bludso" was a type of the old-time Mississippi en- 
gineer of twenty-five or thirty years ago — reckless, careless, and 
with but few of the amenities of cultured life, but loyal to duty 
and courageous even to death: 

" A reckless man in his talk was Jim, 

And an awk'ard hand in a row ; 
But he never flunked and he never lied — 

I reckon he never know'd how." 



ARCTIC SERVICE AND INI AND WATERS. 245 

His were the days of rivalry and jealousy on the competing 
lines of passenger steamers, when desire and the determina- 
tion not to be beaten were pushed even to the pitch of 
desperation : 

" All boats has their day on the Mississip 

And her day come at last, — 
The Movaster was a better boat 

And the Belle she wouldn't be passed 
And so she come tearin' along that night — 

The oldest craft on the line — 
With a nigger squat on her safety valve, 

And her furnace crammed rosin and pine. 

" The fire bust out as she cleared the bar 

And burnt a hole in the night, 
And quick as a flash she turned and made 

For that wilier-bank on the right. 
There was runnin' and cursin', but Jim yelled out 

Over all the infernal roar, 
' I'll hold her nozzle ag'in the bank 

Till the last galoot's ashore.' 

" Through the hot, black breath of the burnin' boat 

Jim Bludso's voice was heard 
And they all had trust in his cussidness. 

And knowed he would keep his word. 
And, sure's you're born, they all got off 

Afore the smoke stacks fell, — 
And Bludso's ghost went up alone 

In the smoke of the Prairie Belle." 

There is more of heroism and of real manliness in such a 
rough, fearless, but loyal fellow as was this typical Mississippi 
engineer, than in many a so-called "flower of chivalry" of the 
knightly days or in the blood-stained conqueror of later times. 

Equal to the engineer Jim Bludso of the poet in daring 
and fidelity to his trust, was the pilot James Allen of fact. 



246 ARCTIC SERVICE AND INI AND WATERS. 

" He was," says a brother pilot who tells the story, " my partner 
during the war days on the steamer Von Phue. He had been 
in the rebel army but I had known him for many years and 
trusted his honor when he came under our flag. We started 
out of New Orleans and had got up as far as Morgan's Point 
where the river makes a bend. I was in my stateroom and 
Allen was at the wheel, when I heard a crash of glass in the 
pilot house and then the sound of a cannon shot. I rushed 
out, looked up and saw Allen pale as death. ' What's the 
matter ? ' I said, and just then came another shot from the 
shore smashing through the boat. I knew what it was now. 
A six-gun rebel battery was trained on to our boat and playing 
away like mad. ' Are you hurt, Jim ? ' I called out. ' No,' he 
replied, keeping his eyes on the bow of the boat which he was 
pointing away from the battery. ' I'm all right, but the cap'n 's 
killed.' I ran up into the pilot house and sure enough there 
lay the captain and the clerk dead as a door nail. Bang; 
bang! went the battery again as we rounded the point. ' Can't 
I help you, Jim ? ' I asked between the shots. ' You go below/ 
was all he said. ' It's my watch. I'll steer the boat.' And I 
went below. Before we had got past the battery, in those two 
attacks they had put into our boat sixty-two shots. But we 
escaped 'em and got by all right. We were saved, but I tell 
you it was all owing to the honesty and courage of Jim Allen, 
a rebel pilot." 




CHAPTER XII. 



BLUE JACKETS OF SIXTY-ONE. 



| of JWtj 



• 



-v_ 




n IGHTEEN hundred and 
% sixty-one was an era of cri- 
sis in the history of the 
United States. The great 
republic was at peace with 
the world. Her industries 
were growing, her resources 
were increasing, her remark- 
able development in trade, 
in commerce, in population 
and in all that makes a 
nation prosperous and progressive had raised her to a foremost 
position among the peoples of the world. 

In that year came the tragedy. Separating on questions of 
private opinion but of national importance the republic found 
itself rent by a great civil feud, its whole southern half resisting 
the efforts made by its northern counterpart to keep the Union 
intact. Resistance was succeeded by secession; secession by 
civil war. The Rebellion from a political threat became a 
national fact. 

War found the nation singularly unprepared. The army 
was reduced to its lowest peace footing. The navy was even 
more unavailable. Of its ninety steam and sailing vessels, 

247 



248 BLUE JACKETS OF 'SIXTY-ONE. 

twenty-one were " unserviceable," and twenty-seven were " out 
of commission." Of the remaining forty-two, twenty-six were 
far from home, scattered through the foreign seas and ports of 
the globe. Of the twelve vessels " at home " only two were 
available for immediate use, the Brooklyn of twenty-five guns 
and the Relief of two. Of the seventy-six hundred seamen 
fixed as the complement of the navy there were, in receiving 
ships and home ports, but two hundred and seven at the disposal 
of the Navy Department, while over three hundred of the nation's 
naval officers " resigned " to take sides with the South when the 
hour of conflict came. Conspiracy shrewdly planned had been 
as shrewdly executed. 

Once committed to war the nation acted quickly. The 
president's proclamation calling for volunteers found ready re- 
sponse and army and navy grew rapidly. From town and vil- 
lage, from store and shop, from fishing-boat and forecastle came 
the strong and stalwart young life of the North eager to fight for 
the Union. In 1863 there were in the naval service of the nation 
thirty-four thousand men, and at the close of the war, in 1865, 
there were nearly fifty-two thousand men in the service and the 
€nfeebled navy of 1861 had grown to six hundred and seventy- 
one vessels. 

The seventy-five hundred naval officers appointed during the 
war — one seventh of the whole service — were composed of a 
varied material. " Some," says Professor Soley, " were mer- 
chant captains and mates of experience ; others had never been 
at sea. Those employed on the Mississippi were chiefly steam- 
boat men and pilots ... It was no uncommon thing in 
1 86 1 to find officers in command of steamers who had never 
served in steamers before and who were far more anxious about 
their boilers than about their enemy." 



BLUE JACKETS OF 'SIXTY-ONE. 249 

With this mass of undisciplined seamen and equally un- 
trained officers it would have been impossible to have success- 
fully withstood an enemy trained to naval warfare and supplied 
with ships and sailors. It was the salvation of the Federal 
navy that, crude and unprepared as it was for ocean warfare, its 
enemy was still more crudely furnished. " Except its officers," 
says Professor Soley, " the Confederate Government had noth- 
ing in the shape of a navy. It had not a single ship of war. It 
had no abundant fleet of merchant vessels in its ports from 
which to draw reserves. It had no seamen, for its people were 
not given to seafaring pursuits. Its only ship-yards were 
Norfolk and Portsmouth . . . For strictly naval warfare, 
where ships of war measured themselves against each other, the 
South was never able to accumulate a sufficient force." 

The War for the Union, therefore, partook but little of the 
character of a naval war. Without facilities of its own to pro- 
duce or to man naval vessels the South was forced to rely for 
assistance in this direction upon its pronounced but not ac- 
knowledged ally, England. 

Indeed, the water conflict was, from the first, rather the 
struggle between jailer and prisoner than of evenly-matched 
combatants. The navy of the Confederacy was but a weak as- 
sortment of confiscated tugs and steamboats, originally intended 
for passenger service and hastily strengthened for war. These 
could only harass an enemy they could not hope to defeat and, 
until the Confederate rams and English-built cruisers went 
into commission in the later years of the war but little damage 
to Federal commerce or to Federal war-ships was effected by 
the rebel " navy." 

The naval vessels of the United States, therefore, during the 
early years of the war did little more than patrol duty. Lying 



25 o BLUE JACKETS OF 'SIXTY-ONE. 

at anchor off the Southern ports or cruising along the Southern 
coastboard their chief duty was to keep vessels from entering 
or leaving the ports declared to be "blockaded." But this was 
no small matter. The South must have food and money. She 
must have those necessaries of life and munitions of war that 
could only be obtained from the outside. To secure these and 
to supply the foreign markets with cotton and other domestic 
staples enterprising and desperate men were ready to risk all, 
even to life itself. Thus arose the most dramatic episode of the 
war, so far as the ocean was concerned, that of blockade running. 
The flimsy Southern craft of the early war days — the small 
sailing vessels and unseaworthy steamers were speedily cap- 
tured, wrecked or driven off the seas. But the temptations and 
profits of this dangerous traffic were too alluring to be resisted. 
English capital and English pluck were enlisted. Swift, Clyde- 
built steamers were specially constructed for the service, and 
the Federal blockaders along the coast had work in plenty to 
watch and waylay these stealthy greyhounds of the sea. 

Along the Southern coast from the capes of the Chesapeake 
to the mouth of the Rio Grande was the game of ocean hide- 
and-seek kept up. Despite its dangers and its risks blockade- 
running continued and the merchants of Nassau and Bermuda 
waxed wealthy with their ventures. But the persistence and 
energy of the blue jackets of the Union triumphed. The 
blockade though one of the most difficult ever attempted by a 
nation was successfully maintained. Notwithstanding the pe- 
culiar formation of the Southern coast — with its net-work of 
channels, the nearness of such " neutral " but friendly ports as 
Nassau and those of the Bahamas, the desperate need and de- 
termination for the cotton of the rebellious States, and the final 
introduction of fast-sailing- steam blockade-runners — the block- 



BLUE JACKETS OF ' SIXTY-ONE. 251 

• 

ade was so successfully maintained that the traffic was at last 
almost entirely broken up. 

As a result of their vigilance the loyal sailors at the close 
of the war had to their credit a total of 1,149 prizes of which 
210 were steamers. 335 vessels were sunk, burned or destroyed, 
and this work — a greater showing than that of the War of 181 2 
which had been almost strictly a naval war — was the labor not 
of privateers but of the American Navy exclusively. 

Many were the exciting chases, many the inspiriting captures. 
The Stag and the Charlotte were decoyed and captured by 
means of shore lights skillfully displayed ; the Kate was disabled 
and destroyed in the gray of a summer morning by a boat-load 
of sailors from the Union fleet ; the Hebe, boarded in the teeth 
of a northeast gale, was rendered valueless by a boat-load of 
sailors who, their own boat being swamped, knew that the 
exploit was to end for them in victory or death ; the Venus, one 
of the finest and fleetest of the blockade-runners, was overhauled 
in a stern chase by Lamson in the Nansemond, riddled by four 
well-directed shells, driven on shore and captured by a board- 
ing crew ; the Howquah chased a prize straight through the 
concentrated fire of the Confederate batteries ; and on the 
Charleston station four boats' crews from the blockading fleet, 
under cover of the darkness, boarded a blockade-runner as she 
lay at her dock in fancied security, overpowered the sleeping 
crew, forced the engineer to get under way at once, and, almost 
before the dazed captives knew just what had happened to them, 
the plucky blue jackets were carrying their prize out of the 
enemy's reach. At five o'clock on a November morning Captain 
Breck of the Niphon spied a blockade-runner chased by one of 
the Union fleet. Caught thus between two enemies the plucky 
runner turned at bay and steered straight for the Niphon as if 



! 5- 



BLUE JACKETS OF 'SIXTY-ONE. 



to cut her down. Breck saw the move and was ready for it. 
On came the desperate blockade-runner on desperate purpose 

bent. Breck ordered a boarding 
crew to form on the Niphon's bow. 
Straight through a raking shower 
of canister dashed the stranger. 
Crash ! came her beak into the 
Union vessel carrying away bow- 
sprit and stem. But the boarding 
crew was ready. As the two vessels 
met they leaped the rail regardless 
of collision or shock and with a 
rush made themselves masters of a 
prize that netted them and their 
comrades a return of $180,000. 

These and many similar experi- 
ences that might 
here be detailed 
show the desper- 
ate character of the 
service alike for 
runner and for 
watcher. The 
blockade - runner's 
side of the story is 
quite as interesting 
and even more ex- 
citing, and is "proof 
of the valor and 
dash that has been displayed by the American sailor on 
whichever side he fought. 




RECRUITS FOR THE NAVY: DRILLING THE AWKWARD SQUAD. 



BLUE JACKETS OF 'SIXTY-ONE. 253 

But it was not alone in maintaining a stringent blockade 
that the best naval work of the war was done. The lack of 
what might be called a navy on the Confederate side precluded 
as has been shown the possibility of actual naval engagements 
but brilliant work was nevertheless accomplished by Union 
fleets and cruisers while the daring and intrepidity displayed 
on Rebel ram and Confederate cruiser surely demands place in 
any story of the American sailor. 

The doings of this latter craft — the Confederate cruisers — 
fitly termed by Professor Soley " the commerce-destroyers " 
— attracted the attention of the entire world. Built mostly in 
English ship-yards and backed many of them by English capital 
these trim and fast-sailing Rebel cruisers replaced the " mos- 
quitoes of ocean warfare " which in the early part of the war 
had essayed the part of an offensive navy. Steering boldly 
into foreign parts they wrought devastation upon American 
commerce in every sea. The Sumter, Florida, Alabama, Rap- 
pahannock, Georgia, Nashville and Shenandoah were the chief 
of these commerce-destroyers, only the first-named of these 
being of American build. All came to an untimely end, but 
before that end was reached these pests of the seas had inflicted 
upon the American merchant-marine injuries from which it 
never has recovered. 

The capture of the Florida by the Wachusett in neutral 
waters, if " unauthorized and unlawful " was still a brilliant 
piece of sea-work. It called out an official reprimand, but, all 
the same, it made the name of Commander Napoleon Collins 
as popular among his countrymen as was that of Captain Charles 
Wilkes of heroic memory — the " unauthorized " captor of the 
Rebel commissioners on board the British steamer Trent. The 
end of the Alabama, when, off Cherbourg harbor, in almost the 



254 BLUE JACKETS OF 'SIXTY-ONE. 

only naval duel of the war she was sunk after an action of sixty- 
minutes by the Federal sloop of war Kearsarge, raised the name 
of Captain John A. Winslow to the highest place in the regard 
of his countrymen, put a "stopper" to the boasted " lucky days " 
of Raphael Semmes, and freed American commerce of one of 
its most persistent persecutors. This engagement in fact almost 
revived the enthusiasms of the old naval glories of 1812. For 
this victory of the Kearsarge over the Alabama was one in 
which an English-built vessel supplied with English guns and 
manned by an English crew was thoroughly beaten and sunk 
in a sharp fight of less than an hour by American blue jackets, 
serving American guns in an American-built ship. 

Into every sea where defenceless American merchantmen 
sailed these rebel commerce-destroyers sailed. It was a destruc- 
tive and one-sided warfare that they waged until the guns of 
Yankee cruisers or the toils of diplomacy put an end to their 
careers. But not unfrequently they found their victims not such 
ready prey as they expected. The Pacific whalers especially, 
inured to a life of hardship and struggle, often sought to strike 
back before they would willingly allow their ships and the 
labor of years to go without a blow. Just such a plucky Yan- 
kee skipper was Captain Thomas Young of New Bedford, over- 
hauled in Behring Strait by the cruiser Shenandoah. De- 
serted bv his frightened crew who saw the uselessness of resist- 
ing the guns of an armed man-of-war the old skipper stood 
alone upon the cabin roof determined to defend his vessel to 
the last. " Stand off, if you know what's good for you ! " he 
yelled to the advancing boat from the cruiser. " Haul - down 
your flag!" came back the order. " I'll see you hanged first," 
Captain Young replied. " Down with it or I'll shoot you," 
cried the officer in the boat. " Shoot away; I can shoot too ! '* 



BLUE JACKETS OF 'SIXTY-ONE. 255 

returned the old skipper. Up the chains and over the rail 
clambered the boarding crew and as they made for their sole 
adversary on the cabin roof the brave old fellow levelled his 
pistols and pulled trigger on his assailants. First one and then 
the other pistol was snapped ; but no reports followed. The 
caps had been removed by his terrified comrades. Then only 
did the brave old skipper surrender while his captors, unable 
to appreciate real heroism, clapped him in irons and robbed 
him of everything he possessed. 

Of equal pluck and courage was the bluff old captain of the 
whaler Ben Scott. Arming his men in haste when the dreaded 
Alabama overhauled him in far Southern waters he sent back 
the reply to an order to heave to: "Stand off! We'll go to the 
bottom before we'll surrender to a rebel ! " Volley after volley 
came from the cruiser as its punishment for such obstinacy, 
but to every demand to surrender came back the whaler's 
musket shots. " The Ben Scott don't surrender ! Come and 
take us if you can ! " At last, riddled with broadsides, down 
went his vessel, bow first. Even when the sinking crew had 
been fished out of the water the old skipper's pluck did not 
seem to have been cooled by his bath. Walking straight up to 
Semmes, the rebel captain, he said: " Wal', ef I'd only 'a' had 
one old cannon aboard, we'd 'a' licked you fellers out 'er yer 
boots. Here we be ; now what you goin' to do with us ? " 

Recognizing early in the conflict their lack of sufficient sea 
armament the naval advisers of the Confederacy suggested the 
encasing of certain stout-hulled steamers in iron enough to 
render them shot proof. From this crude idea came the iron- 
clad — a species of sea-fighter that led to the present iron 
and steel battle-ships and revolutionized the art of naval 
war. Provided with heavy iron beaks for crushing in the 



256 BLUE JACKETS OE 'SIXTY-ONE. 

wooden hulls of their opponents these " rebel rams " became 
dangerous and formidable neighbors in Southern harbors and 
the scars left by their ponderous beaks were found on the 
shattered hulls of many a sunken Union vessel. 

Two, notably, stand out from the list of a dozen or more of 
these iron monsters of the Confederacy — the Merrimac and 
the Albemarle. The career of the first of these rebel rams and 
her losing fight with that queer little " cheese-box on a raft " 
(forever famous as the Monitor) is familiar to all. It is a water 
fight that has become historic, for it revolutionized the methods 
of ocean warfare and led to the present ponderous iron navies 
of the world. But though Worden, bruised and blinded in the 
fight as he worked the little Monitor, is the central figure in 
that memorable affair, the memory of the gallant Lieutenant 
Morris, bravely defending the Cumberland to the last is dear to 
every admirer of the heroic. Of the sailors who stood by him 
in that losing fight Professor Soley says : " Never did a crew 
fight a ship with more spirit and hardihood than these brave 
fellows of the Cumberland while the vessel was going down ; " 
and Longfellow has immortalized the scene in stirring verse : 

" At anchor in Hampton Roads we lay, 

On board of the Cumberland, sloop-of-war ; 
And at times from the fortress across the bay 
The alarum of drums swept past, 
Or a bugle blast 
From the camp on the shore. 

Then far away to the south uprose 

A little feather of snow-white smoke, 
And we knew that the iron ship of our fees 
Was steadily steering its course 
To try the force 
Of our ribs of oak. 



BLUE JACKETS OE 'SIXTY-ONE. 259 

Down upon us heavily runs, 

Silent and sullen, the floating fort ; 
Then comes a puff of smoke from her guns, 
And leaps the terrible death, 
With fiery breath, 
From each open port. 

We are not idle, but send her straight 

Defiance back in a full broadside! 
As hail rebounds from a roof of slate, 
Rebounds our heavier hail 
From each iron scale 
Of the monster's hide. 

' Strike your flag ! ' the rebel cries, 

In his arrogant old plantation strain. 
' Never ! ' our gallant Morris replies ; 
' It is better to sink than to yield ! ' 
And the whole air pealed 
With the cheers of our men. 

Then, like a kraken huge and black, 

She crushed our ribs in her iron grasp! 
Down went the Cumberland all a wrack, 
With a sudden shudder of death, 
And the cannon's breath 
For her dying gasp. 

Next morn, as the sun rose over the bay, 

Still floated our flag at the mainmast head. 
Lord, how beautiful was Thy day ! 
Every waft of the air 
Was a whisper of prayer, 
Or a dirge for the dead. 

Ho ! brave hearts that went down in the seas ! 

Ye are at peace in the troubled stream ; 
Ho! brave land! with hearts like these, 
Thy flag that is rent in twain, 
Shall be one again, 
And without a seam ! " 



2 6o BLUE JACKETS OF 'SIXTY-ONE. 

Still more remarkable as a daring piece of sailor spunk was 
the self-imposed task of Lieutenant William Cushing in his 
attack upon the second-mentioned of these rebel rams. A 
young fellow of twenty-one, courageous to a fault, enthusiastic 
to the verge of recklessness, and yet cool, determined and 
collected in the hour of greatest danger, Cushing determined 
to destroy the iron ram Albemarle, just then a threatening 
bar to Union success in North Carolina waters. The hero, 
already, of one remarkable piece of coolness and audacity in 
his attempt to capture with but a handful of men the com- 
manding officer of the enemy's forces and to destroy the rebel 
ram Raleigh, Cushing secured for this second enterprise the 
use of a steam launch at the bow of which he rigged a spar 
torpedo that could be lowered into the water and exploded by 
means of a trigger-line held in the hands of an expert gunner. 

On a dark and stormy October night this young lieutenant 
and his volunteer crew started on their hazardous trip. Past 
the Rebel pickets and the Rebel shipping the launch crept 
on, up the river to where at the dock lay the deadly ram. So 
quietly did they glide along that Cushing even began to enter- 
tain hopes that he might board and capture the monster with- 
out the need of his deadly explosive when suddenly the warn- 
ing bark of a dog startled the enemy. Now all was changed. 
The hope for a surprise was over. Everything depended upon 
the skill and coolness of the intrepid young leader. Driving 
his little craft straight at the now aroused Albemarle he 
dashed alongside through a shower of rifle-bullets, then took 
a wide sweep out to the middle of the river and, turning again, 
headed at full speed for the log-encircled monster. Shot upon 
shot rang out from the defenders of the Albemarle as the 
audacious little launch dashed on to the attack. But neither 



BLUE JACKETS OF 'SIXTY-ONE. 261 

the storm of rebel bullets nor the open ports of the great ram 
as the shore fires lighted up the scene could stay the dash or 
check the rollicking bravado of Cushing and his men in that 
hour of supremest peril. " He went into action," says Pro- 
fessor Soley, " with the zest of a schoolboy at football, and the 
nerve and judgment of a veteran." " Hullo, the ram ! " he 
shouted. " Get ashore or we'll sink you ! Surrender ; sur- 
render, on your lives ! We're going to blow you up ! " 

The one little howitzer on the launch poured its " dose of 
canister " into the open ports of the Albemarle and just as the 
launch dashed against the boom of logs that surrounded the 
ram the rebels trained dead upon her their big hundred-pound 
gun. The launch, forced high upon the logs, was now within 
a dozen feet of destruction. Standing in the bow, plain to all 
in the glare of the surrounding fires, his right hand already 
rendered useless, Cushing held in his left hand the torpedo 
lines and almost in the same instant that the great gun 
blazed away at him he deftly lowered the spar, drove the 
torpedo under the " overhang " of the ram and pulled the 
trigger line. The roar of the enemy's hundred-pounder was 
echoed by the crash of the torpedo. 

The launch, disabled and entangled in the logs, was no 
longer manageable. "Jump for your lives!" cried Cushing, 
and he and his gallant men leaped into the water. Two went 
down in the attempt. One escaped. The rest were captured, 
but the plucky young leader swam ashore, hid in the woods 
and swamps till daylight and then, weak and wounded, made 
his way to the Union picket boat and thus escaped. He had 
accomplished his task. The Albemarle, a total wreck, heeled 
over and sunk at her moorings. And the daring of Cushing 
called out praises both from friend and foe. 



262 BLUE JACKETS OF 'SIXTY-ONE. 

Such exploits as these though notable because of their per- 
sonal daring were by no means phenomenal. Even though it 
be conceded that the naval arm of the service in the war for 
the Union was a minor part, its usefulness limited, as Admiral 
Ammen declares, to the blockade of the coast and effective aid 
to the army in the capture of forts, it still remains that the blue 
jackets of 'sixty-one need not yield in heroic example, in valor 
or in deeds of " high emprise " to the boys in blue with whom 
they fairly divide the honors and renown. The brilliant pas- 
sage of the rebel forts by the Union fleets at New Orleans, at 
Vicksburg and at Mobile secured for the valor of the American 
seaman the plaudits of a watching world. The victory at Port 
Royal was secured entirely by the guns of the fleet. At Fort 
Fisher sixteen hundred sailors and four hundred marines from 
the Union fleet joined in the land assault, and charged desper- 
ately at the solid sea front. Though at first repulsed they 
turned back again and with dogged determination charged with 
the land forces on the landward side and wildly cheered as one 
of their own number pulled down the Confederate flag. The 
forts at Hatteras Inlet were reduced solely by the guns of the 
navy, and it was the navy that opened the shackled Mississippi 
to traffic from Cairo to the Gulf. 

There were as has been said but few ocean duels in the 
course of war. Such however were the actions between the 
Kearsarge and the Alabama, already noted, and that between 
the Alabama and the Hatteras off Galveston — the rebel 
cruiser's first naval battle. The fight between the rebel pri- 
vateer Savannah and the United States brig Perry, and the 
destruction of the steamer Petral by the national frigate St. 
Lawrence would also come into the list of naval battles, but 
beyond these the open-sea fight did not extend. The only 



BLUE JACKETS OF ' 'SIXTY-ONE. 263 

Confederate vessels afloat were blockade-runners and cruisers 
and neither of these vessels cared to meet with or engage the 
war-ships of the Union. 

Undoubtedly the most important naval engagement of the 
war, as, indeed, it is conceded to have been one of the fiercest 
naval fights on record, was Farragut's memorable passage of the 
forts at New Orleans. Exposed to the fires of two of the 
strongest forts in the Confederacy, harassed and raked by 
the combined shore batteries, gunboats and rams of the rebel 
defenders the Union fleet made its forward move and within the 
space of an hour and a half had passed the forts, destroyed 
almost the whole of the Confederate fleet and held the city of 
New Orleans at its mercy. Well has Brownell in fiery verses * 
sung the story of the river fight : 

" Would you hear of the River Fight ? 
It was two, of a soft spring night — 

God's stars looked down on all, 
And all was clear and bright 
But the low fog's chilling breath — 
Up the River of Death 

Sailed the Great Admiral. 

Who could fail with him ? 
Who reckon of life or limb ? 

Not a pulse but beat the higher ! 
There had you seen, by the starlight dim, 
Five hundred faces strong and grim — 

The Flag is going under tire ! 
Right up by the fort, with her helm hard-a-port, 

The Hartford is going under fire ! 
The way to our work was plain, 
Caldwell had broken the chain, 
(Two hulks swung down amain, 

* The lines presented here are but a fragment of Brownell's spirited poem. His rendering of Farragut's 
" General Orders " in verse is one of the most unique things in rhyme. He also put into rhyme a description of 
the fight at Mobile, where he was an acting ensign on Farragut's flag-ship the Hartford. 



264 BLUE JACKETS OF 'SIXTY-ONE. 

Soon as 'twas sundered) — 
Under the night's dark blue, 
Steering steady and true, 
Ship after ship went through — 
Till, as we hove in view, 

Jackson out-thundered. 

Back echoed Philip ! — ah, then, 
Could you have seen our men, 

How they sprung, in the dim night haze, 
To their work of toil and clamor ! 
How the loaders, with sponge and rammer, 
And their captains with cord and hammer, 

Kept every muzzle ablaze ! 
How the guns, as with cheer and shout 
Our tackle-men hurled them out, 

Brought up on the water-ways ! 

First, as we fired at their flash, 

'Twas lightning and black eclipse, 
With a bellowing roll and crash — 
But soon, upon either bow, 
What with forts, and fire-rafts and ships — 
(The whole fleet was hard at it now. 
All pounding away ! ) — and Porter 
Still thundering with shell and mortar — 
'Twas the mighty sound and form 
Of an Equatorial storm ! 



But that we fought foul wrong to wreck 
And to save the Land we loved so well, 

You might have deemed our long gun-deck 
Two hundred feet of hell ! 

For all above was battle 
Broadside and blaze and rattle, 

Smoke and thunder alone — 
(But, down in the sick bay, 
Where our wounded and dying lay, 

There was scarce a sob or a moan.) 



BLUE JACKETS OF 'SIXTY-ONE. 267 

And at last, when the dim day broke, 
And the sullen sun awoke, 

Drearily blinking, 
O'er the haze and the cannon smoke, 
That ever such morning dulls — 
There were thirteen traitor hulls 
On fire and sinking ! 



Lord of mercy and frown. 
Ruling o'er sea and shore, 
Send us such scene once more ! 
All in Line of Battle 

When the black ships bear down 

On tyrant fort and town, 

'Mid cannon-cloud and rattle — 
And the great guns once more 
Thunder back the roar 
Of the traitor walls ashore, 

And the traitor flasrs come down ! 



There is no grander or more heroic figure in all the war- 
pictures of the Great Rebellion than that of David Glasgow 
Farragut. A typical American sailor, he had served in the navy 
of his country from earliest boyhood ; he had stood by the side of 
Porter in his splendid defence of the Essex in the war of 181 2, 
and had lived to add renown and glory fifty years after to 
the flag he had then helped to defend. His simple faith, 
his sturdy manliness, his sublime courage, his modesty and his 
kindliness were at once an example and an inspiration to those 
who fought under him. Accomplishing at New Orleans " a feat 
in naval warfare that had no precedent," lashed to the shrouds 
in Mobile Bay, passing the belching forts at Vicksburg, and the 
batteries at Port Hudson — whatever the danger or whatever 
the risk he was still the same sturdy, unruffled, courageous 
"Old Heart of Oak." Down went the ill fated Tecumseh, done 



268 BLUE JACKETS OF 'SIXTY-ONE. 

to death by rebel torpedoes in Mobile Bay. Just ahead of the 
Hartford flag ship, the Brooklyn halted as if in doubt. From 
Mobile Point thundered the whole rebel cannonade. " What's 
the trouble ? " came the call to the Brooklyn, from the Admiral 
lashed to the port rigging of the Hartford. " Torpedoes ! " was 
shouted back in reply. " Damn the torpedoes ! " said Farragut. 
" Four bells ! Captain Drayton, go ahead ! Jouett, full speed ! " 
The Recording Angel forgave the emphasis. The Hartford 
passing the halting Brooklyn dashed forward, took the head of 
the line and led the fleet to victory. 

But together with Farragut how many others, brother sailors 
in the Union fleets, merit mention here. Foote and Dupont, 
Wilkes and Porter, Boggs and Bailey, Rodgers and Worden, 
Dahlgren and Davis — these and many others in minor posi- 
tions deserve equal meed, while the records of the service 
teem with stories of gallantry, heroism, fidelity and martyrdom. 
John Davis, gunner's mate of the Valley City, serving the guns 
during action from an open keg of gunpowder, coolly sat upon 
the open barrel when an exploding shell set fire to the wood- 
work and, preventing the sparks from igniting the gunpowder, 
kept his seat until the fire was extinguished. The Monitor's 
men, uncertain and dubious as to the safety of their home in 
that new-fangled " cheese-box " yet went into battle without a 
murmur although for over forty-eight hours they had been 
deprived of their rest and had found scarcely anything to eat. 
" Come and take me ! " came back the answer of a Yankee 
skipper when Semmes on the Alabama ordered him to sur- 
render. "Surrender or I sink you!" the rebel captain 
signalled. " Attempt it," replied the plucky captain, " and by 
the living God, I will run you down and we will sink together." 

Pilot Collins and Commander Craven met at the foot of the 



BLUE JACKETS OF ' SIXTY-ONE. 269 

ladder that, upon the shattered and sinking Tecumseh, was the 
only way to safety. But one of them could escape. Craven 
stepped back with heroic courtesy. " After you, pilot," he said. 
" There was nothing after me," said the pilot as he related the 
story; "for when I reached the top of the ladder the vessel 
dropped from under me." Commander Craven was the 
modern Sir Philip Sidney. 

In escaping from the ram Manassas, below New Orleans, the 
Vincennes grounded, and the order was given to fire the vessel 
and escape to the Richmond. The train was laid, but as the 
crew were leaving the stranded ship one old sailor who did 
not think the order- a brave one snatched up the burning slow 
match and flung it overboard. The next day the Vincennes 
was floated off, safe and sound. 

Freeman, the trusted pilot of Farragut, stood in the rat- 
lines above even his stout old commodore lashed in the top. 
Lieutenant Commander Gwin, in a fight with the Mississippi 
batteries left the armored pilot house of his ship, the Benton, 
to watch the effect of the enemy's fire saying, "with a noble 
rashness," that the captain's place was on the quarter-deck. 
And there he died. Captain Henry Walker, three weeks 
before Farragut passed the New Orleans forts and in face of 
the opinion that it was certain death to make the attempt, ran 
the Carondelet past the river batteries, during a heavy thunder 
storm, — " one of the most daring and dramatic events of 
the war," says Commander Mahan. 

These are but a few of the many instances of pluck and 
valor that could be cited in proof of the American sailor's 
daring in the hour of duty and of danger that came so often 
to him in the battle days of the Civil War. 

The thunders of ram and fort, of battery and war ship are 



270 



BLUE JACKETS OF 'SIXTY-ONE. 



stilled. The warlike deeds of 'sixty-one are fast becoming a 
misty memory and the six hundred war ships of the Union 
navy have dwindled to a small and beggarly array. But the 
memory, though misty, is strong and deathless and while time 
shall last America will proudly place in the gallery of her 
national heroes the men who fought for the honor of the flac: 
upon the plunging decks of frigate and cruiser, of gun boat 
and monitor in the days when the blue jackets of her navy 
were brave and zealous defenders of the nation's honor and the 
nation's flag. 







CHAPTER XIII. 



THE GENTLEMAN SAILOR. 




ITH the last shot of the Civil 
War that went hurtling 
over blue waters the days 
of conflict and battle that 
for generations had marked 
the sailing courses of Amer- 
ica with cannon-smoke and 
blood came to an end. 
Henceforth the rivalries of 
the sea were to be rather 
those of friendly struggle 
than of bloody war, and the test of strength was to lie in fleet 
keels and in bulging canvas — in striving for the silver cup or 
the fluttering pennant of peaceful rivalry rather than in the 
boarder's cutlass or the lowered flag. 

The desire for display and discipline that seems to be 
ingrained in the nature of man was transferred from the deck 
of the war-ship to that of the pleasure craft. Desire grows 
with endeavor and to-day the ownership of a yacht is the am- 
bition of every prosperous American. The increasing fleets 
of white wings that with each new summer dot our Northern 

coasts, the increasing sums of money expended in the building 

271 



2 7 2 THE GENTLEMAN SAILOR. 

and outfitting of swift and beautiful pleasure boats, the advance 
made in the science and art of yacht construction, the interest 
and enthusiasm displayed in every trial of skill and of speed 
between rival yachts on lake or river, bay or broader sea are 
proof that the great public loves to watch the graceful exhibi- 
tions of water tactics and that the present is, notably, the day 
of the gentleman sailor. 

There have always been " gentlemen sailors " — that favored 
class of wealthy humanity who are better able to own than to 
sail their private vessels. But, from the days of the pleasure 
galleys of Tyre and the regal yachts of the Roman emperors, 
ownership in these expensive luxuries has never been so uni- 
versal as it is to-day. In modern times England had long main- 
tained the lead in private ownership, interest and speed. Forty 
years ago American yachts like American books were unheard 
of in England, and Sidney Smith's famous query might have 
been extended from American literature to American yachtsman- 
ship. Major Crowninshield's parti-colored craft of two hun- 
dred tons launched at Salem in December, 1816, and known as 
Cleopatra's Barge was the first American yacht, and was the 
first to make the ocean trip. But this Yankee pleasure craft 
was regarded rather as an American eccentricity than as a 
serious attempt at yacht construction and it was not until the 
notable triumph of the schooner America over the entire 
pleasure fleet at Cowes in the year 185 1 that England awoke 
to the fact that it had not only a competitor but a victorious 
rival in the big republic across the western sea. 

The " Hoboken Model Yacht Club " organized in 1840" was 
the first attempt in America at an association of the owners of 
private pleasure boats. In 1844 this association became by a 
change of name the New York Yacht Club and from the 



THE GENTLEMAN SAILOR. 



273 



incorporation of this organization dates the real growth of 
American yachting. 

The Southern Yacht Club, formed in New Orleans, about 
1850 with its racing course on Lake Ponchartrain was the 
second American club. The Neptune Club on the Shrewsbury 




•he "GENTLEMAN sailor. 



River was the third and the Carolina Club of Wilmington was 
the fourth. 

The first actual regatta was sailed in New York harbor in 
July, 1845; tlie first match race (and the first ocean race, as 
well) was that between Mr. Stevens's sloop Maria and Mr. Per- 
kins's schooner Coquette in October, 1846. In this forerunner 
of much later sport the victory was won by the Coquette. 

From this point interest in this exhilarating ocean sport 



274 THE GENTLEMAN SAILOR. 

steadily increased, and the victory of the America in British 
waters, already referred to, was the culminating point of the 
initial era in American yachting. 

It was a great day for the American yachtsman ; the twenty- 
second of August, 1 85 1. Amid the hundred yachts that 
thronged the roadstead at Cowes lay the low black hull of " the 
Yankee," in model and rig noticeably different from the British 
craft that surrounded her. In a double line from Cowes Castle 
were moored the eighteen yachts that were entered for the 
race. Nine were cutters and nine schooners, the America being 
among the latter. 

At ten o'clock the signal gun from the battery set the yachts 
in motion and, at once, sheeted in canvas from deck to topmast, 
they dashed away like a field of race horses, the America a 
laggard in the start. Very soon however she began to show 
her mettle, and stood bravely out bowling easily along under 
mainsail, foresail, fore-staysail and jib while her rivals in the 
race had every inch of sail set that their club rules allowed. 

Soon she began to pass her antagonists. First the cut- 
ters dropped behind ; then with a freshening wind the America 
gathered way and forged ahead of the Constance and the Bea- 
trice ; but, the next instant, the Volante cutter dashed forward, 
her great jib catching all the wind, and left the America behind. 
So the race continued with varying fortune until, when off 
Brading, the America caught a six-knot breeze, passed with a 
rush, the four yachts that were leading her, and leaving every 
vessel in the squadron far behind flew like the wind toward the 
buoys that marked the turn in the course. Off the Culver 
cliffs the nearest yacht was two miles astern. Off Dunnose she 
broke her jib-boom short but gathered in the wreck and, at the 
Needles, she was fully seven miles ahead of her nearest pursuer. 



THE GENTLEMAN SAILOR. 275 

"Is the America first?" came the hail off Cowes to one 
of the returning steamers. " Yes," was the reply. " What's 
second ? " rang the anxious English query. " Nothing! " came 
the honest English answer, and cheers for the blue ensign and 
white stars of the visitor from over-sea mingled with the regret 
that England had lost the cup. 

But now the breeze died away, further real sailing was 
impossible, the yachts began to drift, and those that had been 
out of sight when the America was off the Needles, being of 
lighter tonnage, now slipped into range ; the eight miles' dis- 
tance narrowed rapidly, but the gun that greeted the finish 
hailed the America' as winner in the race, eight minutes in 
advance of her competitors. Had the wind held its force the 
Yankee schooner would have distanced her nearest antagonist 
by fully an hour. The boasted " national rig " upon which 
English yachtsmen had relied so implicitly for speed and 
success yielded to the American design and the defeat led the 
British boat-builders to a change of model and of rig. 

Elated by his success " Commodore " Stevens of the Amer- 
ica at once offered to race his boat against any English yacht 
for a stake of ten thousand guineas, but his challenge was not 
taken up and after beating the schooner-yacht Titania by an 
hour's distance in a sea race of forty miles the America returned 
with the prize "cup " to the United States. That trophy, still 
known as the America's Cup, has remained in Yankee hands 
to this day. 

The America's success gave a fresh impetus to the yacht- 
ing interest in this country. The owning of pleasure boats by 
the wealthier classes began to be recognized as an American 
luxury, but even with the incentive of an historic victory the 
growth of the sport was slow and the outbreak of the Civil War 



276 



THE GENTLEMAN SAILOR. 



for a time retarded its further development. It is one of the 
minor features of that struggle, as showing the patriotism of 
the "gentleman sailor," that many of the best of the private 




*fyc 



• ^7 

(BUILDER OF THE PfRITAN, MAYFLOWER AND VOLUNTEER.) 



yachts were loaned or given by their owners to the Government 
for use in the naval service of the Union. 

It was one of these donated yachts that after the close of 
the war gained a victory that has made it historic. This was 
the Henrietta, a keel yacht of two hundred and thirty tons, 
schooner rigged, built for James Gordon Bennett, Jr., of 



THE GENTLEMAN SAILOR. 277 

New York, by Henry Steers, a celebrated boat-builder. Com- 
pleted and launched in June, 1861, Mr. Bennett had at once 
placed her at the disposal of the Government and the "flyer" 
did duty for four years as a revenue cutter between New York 
and Florida. In 1866 having returned to the "service" of the 
New York Yacht Club the Henrietta took part in what has 
been termed " the most remarkable contest ever entered into 
either on land or water." This was a trial of speed between 
three American yachts — the Fleetwing, the Vesta and the 
Henrietta — for the enormous sweep-stake of ninety thousand 
dollars. The race was to be made in midwinter and over an 
ocean course that extended from the Sandy Hook Light Ship, 
off New York harbor, to the Needle's Light in the English 
Channel. 

The race was won by the Henrietta. But it was a victory 
obtained rather by superior navigation than by superior speed. 
The Vesta, though covering the greatest distance, lost the race 
by eight hours and fifty-five minutes and but for her pilot's 
blunder might have made first place. The skillful piloting of 
the Henrietta secured for her the victory by the shortest dis- 
tance and the quickest time, her record being three thousand 
one hundred and six miles in thirteen days, twenty-one hours 
and fifty-five minutes. This remarkable record was almost on 
a par with the fleetest packet ships of those days and only a 
little below the steamer average. 

The victory of the Henrietta raised the " gentleman sailor " 
in the scale of pluck and seamanship. For where he had, here- 
tofore, held rather a minor place in the opinion of seamen as 
one who was only a smooth-water sailor, hugging the land and 
afraid to venture off soundings, it was now established that he 
was ready to brave the winter perils of an ocean voyage and was 



27S THE GENTLEMAN SAILOR. 

able to hold his own against even the best professional sailors. 
Captain Coffin declares that this was " certainly, the most 
remarkable yacht race ever sailed, whether as regards the 
length and nature of the course, the season of the year, the 
amount of money involved, or the result of the struggle. It 
lifted American yachting," he says, " to a level with any in the 
world and placed the New York Club on an equality with the 
Royal Yacht Squadron of Great Britain " — the recognized 
standard of the world's yachting superiority. 

In fact, the spirit and zeal of the sportsman were beginning 
to infuse themselves into the skillful handling of American 
pleasure craft. Pluck and daring were alike entering into the 
sport, and the dash made through Plum Gut by Mr. Bennett 
in the race around Long Island — a short cut deemed 
especially hazardous and seldom attempted by yachtsmen — 
together with the record of the Henrietta in the ocean race 
of 1866 materially changed the old ways and increased alike 
the desires and the risks of the American yachtsmen. They 
became each year still more adventurous. The safe and quiet 
Elysian Fields Course no longer satisfied them. The tests 
must be made in part on the ocean. The Sandy Hook Light 
Ship thus became the turning point of an " inside" course, while 
the "outside " course, a windward and leeward one, stretched away 
twenty miles to sea. This yielded, in turn, to the Atlantic itself 
where sailing courses of hundreds of miles were mapped out ; 
one race, as we have seen, circumnavigated Long Island, and 
the height of hazard was attained when stout and well-appointed 
racers laid their courses across three thousand miles of sea. 

The interest in the exciting sport grew materially after 
the close of the war. English yachts, restless so long as the 
America's Cup remained in Yankee keeping, began to come 



THE GENTLEMAN SAILOR. 279 

across the ocean to fight for its possession. The plucky 
struggle made for this trophy in the summer of 1870 by the 
British schooner Cambria, against the American fleet of 
twenty-five sail came very near to being a victory for England. 
The little schooner Magic won ; the Cambria was tenth at 
the finish, but, according to Captain Coffin, " she was beaten 
because she was clumsily rigged and canvased. I think I am 
correct in saying," he adds, " that with a modern suit of 
canvas the Cambria, in 1870, would have carried home the 
America's Cup." 

But she did not, and hence ensued that series of international 
races for the possession of the coveted trophy that have served 
to heighten public interest in ocean sports and to enrich the 
annals of endeavor with some of the most brilliant and closely- 
fought water-struggles in the history of amateur seamanship. 

If, however, the Cambria did not win the cup she showed 
herself determined to maintain the honor of England's pleasure 
navy against all comers. The Americans responded to her 
challenge and the season of 1870 was a notable one in yacht- 
ing history, the August races at Newport being especially bril- 
liant and interesting. The Cambria, however, came off victor 
in one only of all her matches and this result, as it emphasized 
the defects in English rig, led to a new departure in " canvas- 
ins:" anions: British rio-o-ers. 

So great was the advance in the interest in yachting as an 
American sport that in the year 1872 the membership of Amer- 
ican yacht clubs had grown from the nine members of 1844 to 
a round thousand, owning yachts valued at five millions of 
dollars. In 1875 there were in the United States thirty-four 
regularly organized clubs registering six hundred and ninety-two 
vessels, and in 1885, forty years after the commencement of this 



2 So THE GENTLEMAN SAILOR. 

expensive sport, there were over one hundred clubs registering 
seventeen hundred and ninety-seven yachts. The number of 
additional yachts and private pleasure vessels not officially reg- 
istered would largely increase this total. 

Official figures, indeed, cannot mark the limit of a sport 
that is steadily growing in popular approval. Wherever, on 
ocean, lake or river, a land-locked harbor affords relief from 
breaker, surf or sudden storm there now ride at anchor through 
the sunny summer days the trim and tidy craft that skim the 
waters only at the pleasure of the favored " gentleman sailor." 

Of every size and of every conceivable make and model, 
from cat boat to schooner and from canoe to steamer, the white 
wings of the American pleasure fleet dot the sun-lit waters. 
The breezes that fill the sails or stir the picturesque awnings 
bear with them also vigor, health and manliness to thousands 
who but for the practical development of this noble sport would 
lack the incentive to a sturdy and symmetrical growth. To 
this result the organizers of American yacht clubs and the 
patrons and votaries of yachting as an American pastime have 
largely contributed. And even the negative side of the sport 
— its risks, its dangers, its tendency to degenerate into a vehicle 
for unlawful betting and disastrous gambling on issues — can 
neither neutralize nor outweigh the positive advantages that 
must result from so healthful and invigorating a sport. 

But healthful amusement is not the only outcome of an 
indulgence in the owning and sailing of yachts. A desire to 
excel creates a demand for improved methods that only skilled 
labor can supply. Improvements in model, build and rig have 
led to a systematic and constant development of naval archi- 
tecture. The William Tooker, the George and Henry Steers 
of 1849 are the Hereshoffs, the Charles J. Paine, and the Edward 





"A 

■■9 ■ At ? 



THE GENTLEMAN SAILOR. 283. 

Burgess of 1889, while that interval of forty years has given 
popularity and renown to many a clever designer and successful 
boat-builder. 

More than this, the growth of yachting as a national sport 
has not only yielded employment to skilled and ambitious work- 
men ; it has supplied occupation and the means of livelihood to 
thousands of seamen in manning and managing the constantly 
increasing fleet of pleasure boats. From the ranks of fishermen, 
coasters and pilots has come a class of expert seamen who have 
developed into professional yachtsmen. This, in turn, is of 
national benefit. An augmented pleasure service keeps in 
continual training a large force of men and of vessels as a re- 
serve that can at once be drawn upon for efficient service in 
any emergency that shall call for nautical knowledge, experience 
and skill. 

Although most owners of small pleasure yachts are their own 
skippers and often their own crew few vessels beyond the ton- 
nage of yawl or cat-boat but must depend upon the assistance 
of others as master, mate or crew. Less owners, proportion- 
ately, are their own skippers than in the early days of yachting. 
For a sloop of thirty-five tons a crew of five men is deemed a 
necessity and the number of sizable pleasure craft now afloat 
calls into service a large and ever-increasing contingent of 
strong and sturdy helpers. Here alone is a navy in embryo. 
At least six thousand sailors to-day find employment on the 
decks of American pleasure vessels. The official complement 
of the United States navy at the outbreak of the Civil War 
was but seventy-six hundred men, and this, by intentional 
neglect, had fallen far below the yachtsman's six thousand. 

The "gentleman sailor " has, therefore, called into existence 
a new class of American seamen — the professional yachtsman. 



284 THE GENTLEMAN SAILOR. 

He must be a skilled sailor, thoroughly familiar with soundings, 
currents, channels and the devious ways of harbor, bay and 
sailing course. He must be reliable, ready and alert, courteous, 
willing and handy, with less of the proverbial roughness of the 
regulation " old salt " and with more, perhaps, of the valet in his 
composition than belongs to the merchant sailor. 

But this need for a diversity of gifts is offset by the sub- 
stantial results. The professional yachtsman commands much 
higher pay than does the common sailor. In 1872 the twenty- 
five hundred men employed on board the registered pleasure 
craft in actual service during the four yachting months created 
an outlay in wages and " keep " of over twelve hundred thousand 
dollars. There are now in the United States an ever-increas- 
ing number of competent skippers who, in their summer service 
as captains or sailing masters on the big yachts or the still 
larger steam yachts, earn a sufficient sum to enable them to 
revel in the sailor's luxury and " lay by " during the stormy and 
uninviting winter season. 

This last-mentioned pleasure craft, the steam yacht, while 
of comparatively recent development is forcing its way into a 
prominence that demands recognition not alone as the most 
expensive of all American luxuries but because it is a most 
practical and beneficial luxury. The steam yacht is one of the 
strongest incentives to progress in naval architecture and one 
of the factors in nautical education that may be relied upon as 
a feeder for the navy of the future. 

" Your regular old yachtsman," says Mr. J affray, " has a pro- 
found contempt for steam yachts. He considers that all the ro- 
mance and pleasure of yachting consist in the uncertainties, dan- 
gers and difficulties attending sailing. He glories in the storms 
which compel the shortening of sail, the lying to, the scudding 



THE GENTLEMAN SAILOR. 



285 



before the wind under a staysail and all the other vicissitudes 
which attend excess of wind ; while, on the other hand, he takes 
dead calms, with sails idly flapping against the masts and the 




THE MAYFLOWER. 



reflection of his vessel in the mirror-like water, with philosophy 
and contentment." 

But time is, unfortunately, a matter of too much importance 
to busy Americans to be thus " wasted " when the same ground 
— or, rather, the same water can be more quickly covered by 
other and more rapid methods. " In this happy country," says 



286 THE GENTLEMAN SAILOR. 

Mr. Jaffray, " we have neither time nor inclination to be becalmed 
on the glassy ocean for hours and days, or to creep along at 
three knots indefinitely. Steam yachtsmen can go where they 
please and when they please and, what is more important, 
they know when they will get back." 

Hence the evolution of the steam yacht. It is not an Ameri- 
can idea. Originating in France it has been developed by 
American ingenuity to its present perfection. Mr. Aspin wall's 
crude little fifty foot Fire-Fly of thirty years ago, with its single 
paddle-wheel working in the centre of the boat and encased in 
an air-tight box, has grown into the palatial private steamer of 
to-day — magnificent yachts like the Atalanta and the Nour- 
mahal, beside which the old-time galleys of the Roman 
emperors with their baths and hot houses and jewelled por- 
ticoes would be but crude and ungainly affairs. 

From the steam launch of forty feet to the Atalanta of two 
hundred and fifty feet, the steam yachts run the scale of dimen- 
sions, tonnage, appointments and crew. The Nourmahal, 
probably the handsomest steam yacht afloat, is constructed 
entirely of steel and fitted to circumnavigate the globe. The 
Atalanta can show a record of seventeen knots an hour, the 
Corsair and Stranger of fifteen, and the limit of cost and speed 
have not yet been touched. 

This species of pleasure craft, even more than the sailing 
yachts, call for the services of skilled and reliable sailors. 
The smallest steam launch must have a pilot, an engineer and 
at least one deck hand. The Namouna carries a crew of fifty 
men and her pay roll when " in commission " is not less than 
twenty-five hundred dollars a month. The crews of the steam 
yachts are "the pick of the seamen." They are well-housed, 
well-fed, and consider their employment "a soft berth." To 



THE GENTLEMAN SAILOR. 287 

man and run an average steam yacht — that is a well-built 
and well-equipped decked steamer of from seventy-five to one 
hundred feet long costs, according to the modest estimates of 
Mr. Jaffray, at least ten thousand dollars for a season of five 
months and calls for the services of eight or ten men. This is, 
as has been said, a modest estimate. The cost of running such 
floating palaces as the Namouna, tne Nourmahai and the 
Atalanta creeps far into the tens of thousands. It has, indeed, 
been placed at from six to twelve thousand dollars a month. 
Truly, it was not out of place to denominate this princely 
pleasure as the most expensive of all American luxuries. 

And yet yachting is not, necessarily, an expensive amuse- 
ment. If conducted, as Mr. Benjamin puts it, "without regard 
to the national weakness, ostentation," the sport is one which 
can be shared alike by the millionaire and the American of 
moderate means while the legacy of health that it bequeaths 
can be monopolized by neither. Whether threading the creeks 
and bays of the New England coast in the little " single hander " 
wherein the yachtsman is often captain, crew and passenger 
combined — "three sinole oentlemen rolled into one" — or 
standing upon the bridge of some thirty thousand dollar steam 
yacht — monarch of all he surveys — or striving for the 
America's Cup in some swift-sailing Mayflower or Volunteer, 
the gentleman sailor is taking to himself fresh supplies of 
health and strength and helping to build up America's interest 
in a noble and invigorating sport. 

And when this same orentleman sailor casts off the conven- 
tional " gentleman " and becomes for the cruise a simple son of 
nature what a store of comfort and pleasure does he not enjoy. 
" To him," says Mr. Benjamin, " the humblest fare seasoned 
with the ozone of the salt, breezy ocean is enough. He delights 



288 THE GENTLEMAN SAILOR. 

to leave behind the swallow-tail coat and white choker, the 
desk, the postman and the morning paper, and is never happier 
than when perched on the weather rail in a blue flannel shirt 
conning his lively sloop and puffing at his brier-wood pipe. . . . 
He hears the halliards slatting against the mast in the night 
wind, or feels the yacht jerking at her anchors and anon the 
rattling of a cable or the creaking of blocks as another yacht 
runs in to her anchorage. He recks not that his wee bark is 
neither long nor costly, for the spirit that inspires him is the 
same which fired the Vikings of old to deeds of heroism and 
glory on many a stormy sea." 

Of all the deeds of " heroism and glory " in the annals of 
American yachting none excel in interest the three remarkable 
contests for the possession of the famous America's Cup that 
occupied public attention during the three successive seasons 
of 1885, '86 and '87. 

English ingenuity had been at work. A swift-sailing cutter 
with a wonderful record was sent across the water and the 
hopes of British yachtsmen centered upon the Genesta. But 
American genius had not been idle. In reply to this English 
challenge was launched the sloop Puritan — a centre-board 
yacht in which says Captain Coffin, "from stem to stern, from 
keel to truck, all things about her were closely calculated." 
Three races were arranged for, and the winner of two out of 
the three was to take the cup. Both races were won by the 
Puritan — the first on September 14, 1885, by a lead of sixteen 
minutes and nineteen seconds over an all-round course of thirty- 
eight miles to the Sandy Hook Light Ship and return ; the 
second over an ocean course twenty miles to leeward and 
return on September 16, by one minute and thirty-eight 
seconds. American ingenuity won, but it was by so small a 



THE GENTLEMAN SAILOR. 289 

margin that it was conceded that, had the Yankee yacht been 
any other than the Puritan, the Genesta would have sailed in 
victor. 

In the next year the fight was renewed. Across the sea 
came the Galatea, sister cutter to the Genesta, but presumably 
an improved and faster craft. But again Boston's clever builder 
was ready. The centre-board sloop Mayflower — eighty-five 
feet seven inches water line, twenty-three feet six and one half 
inches beam — was built and launched. In a trial race she out- 
sailed the Puritan, victor of the year before, and on the seventh 
of September, 1886, lay at anchor off Owl's Head in the inner 
bay below New York awaiting the signal to test her rival's 
speed. At ten o'clock came the warning whistle. With club 
topsail, staysail and jib all set the Mayflower dashed across the 
starting line, carrying her boom to port and breaking out her 
jib topsail as she crossed the line. With equal alacrity the 
Galatea obeyed the starting signal ; by a smart and seamanlike 
manoeuvre she " hauled to " and with a great headway rushed 
in between the Mayflower and the stake boat thus getting the 
weather gauge and " blanketing " her antagonist. But this 
device did not work. With a celerity that was bewildering 
to the English tars the Yankee sloop " ran from under the 
Englishman's lee " and having the advantage of lighter 
draught in shallow water stood straight on for a full half- 
minute after the British boat had been forced to tack and 
then, coming about to windward, had so much the advan- 
tage of her rival that no manoeuvring on the Englishman's 
part could win back the lead and when the Galatea touched 
the home line the Mayflower had already preceded her by 
twelve minutes and two seconds. On September 11, over 
the outside course, an even worse defeat was experienced, for 



290 



THE GENTLEMAN SAILOR. 



'% 



the Mayflower won by twenty- 
nine minutes and nine seconds. 

On the twenty-seventh of Sep- 
tember, 1S87, the third and last of 
these three great races was sailed. 
To contest this there came from 
over-sea the Scotch cutter Thistle 
" the fastest 





— 4- .., 








yacht ever built 
in Great Brit- 




i 


ain. " Again 
American 
genius was pre- 
pared, and, as 






the Thistle ' s 
antagonist in 




pq 






j^^aa,, - Tir , V -,vf 






JT- . ■ 




'^•JZf 


" '* " ^ .] 



THE VOLUNTEER. 



the race, sailed the Volunteer, a steel centre-board sloop 
designed and built by Mr. Burgess especially for this contest. 



THE GENTLEMAN SAILOR. 29 1 

Already in a trial of speed had she proved victor over both the 
Mayflower and the Puritan. 

A more beautiful boat and rig than the Thistle, say enthu- 
siastic yachtsmen, was never seen in New York Bay. It was 
the most hotly contested race of the three seasons. As the 
starting gun boomed the Thistle crossed the line, with sails 
trimmed aft and "drawing" beautifully, while the Volunteer 
was "jibing" round astern. It seemed an evil omen. For 
the first time in a struggle for the America's Cup a British 
cutter had led her Yankee rival. But at once the Volunteer 
seemed to waken to the responsibility. Crossing the line 
nearly two minutes behind her antagonist she kept straight 
on toward the Staten Island shore and when the Thistle came 
about she still kept on her course undismayed. It was the 
British mistake of 1886 repeated, for when a little later the 
Volunteer did come about she crossed the Thistle's bow and 
took away her rival's wind. On she forged, a mile ahead of 
the Scotch cutter. She rounded the Spit Buoy that marked 
the turn in the course fully two miles ahead of the Thistle 
and crossed the line a winner of the race by nineteen minutes 
twenty-three and a quarter seconds. Two days after, on the 
twenty-ninth of September came the second race. By a piece 
of bold seamanship the Thistle won the windward berth, but 
by a still more remarkable exhibition of sailing skill the Volun- 
teer luffed twice before she crossed the line and gaining. by 
this a tremendous headway dashed grandly on and when the 
signal for the start boomed from the flag ship the Volunteer 
lay fully twenty lengths to windward of the cutter. Then 
ensued five minutes of marvelous sailing, anxiety and enthu- 
siasm. Five minutes only; for at the end of that time the 
struggle for the lead was practically over and the Thistle was 



2 9 2 THE GENTLEMAN SAILOR. 

a beaten boat. And so it proved ; for when the home run 
was finished the Volunteer came in victor eleven minutes 
forty-eight and three quarter seconds ahead and the America's 
Cup still remains in the hands of its captors. 

Surely such sport as this is thrilling, inspiring, invigorat- 
ing. Such victories are a tribute alike to American o-enius 
and American pluck and the great reception and testimonial 
given in Boston after the final success to the, three times, 
inspirer and designer of the victorious boats in the three inter- 
national races — General Paine and Mr. Burgess — were at once 
a recognition of energy and genius and an exhibition of pardon- 
able pride in the supremacy of American keels. 

The yacht is a school of patriotism. To win a race is a 
laudable desire ; to come in victor over foreign rivals develops, 
as Mr. Benjamin says, that " enthusiasm of patriotism which is 
now kindling once more through the republic and welding our 
various races into one great homogeneous people." 

It is this sentiment that gives fresh impulse to the yachts- 
man's muscle as he hauls away at the sheets, runs up the 
topsails and sets the giant spinnaker; it was this, too, that 
prompted Captain Joe Ellsworth of yachting fame to reply when 
asked to pilot the Thistle in the last international race, that he 
had " never yet sailed against his own flag and never would." 

The yachtsman has become a prominent feature in American 
sea life.* The custom of summer cruising on ocean, lake and 
river is increasing with each new year and though the question 
of superiority as between keel and centre-board is still un- 
decided the growth of this gallant pastime is of even greater 

* It is a significant fact, as showing how closely the amateur touches the professional sailor, that there are 
in America many yacht clubs known as " Corinthian " in all of whose races the " crews " are restricted to amateurs. 
In the great international races the crews of the Puritan, the Mayflower and the Volunteer were composed in a 
considerable part of amateur yachtsmen — " gentlemen sailors." 



THE GENTLEMAN SAILOR. 



2 93 



importance than the minor questions of build and rig and 
model. The benefit of an out-of-door life on board a swift- 
sailing yacht as the keen and strengthening breezes come 
freshening over the white caps of some great lake or of the 
greater ocean is not to be computed in figures but it is certain 
to tell in the manlier because healthier life of America's youth. 
Not even the most sea-detesting of landsmen but will join 
in a godspeed and good voyage to the enthusiastic and daunt- 
less gentleman sailor as he stands out to sea, his club pennant 
flying at the peak and his heart, if not his lips, joining in the 
inspiriting song of the yachtsman : 

" Up with the anchor ! the white-crested billows 
Are leaping like dolphins our swift keel to greet; 

Awake! all ye sluggards, throw by your soft pillows, 
Make sail on our darling, the Queen of the Fleet. 

She welcomes the breeze with ripples of laughter, 

And shows her white teeth at each wave that we meet; 

She flings back the spray at crafts that come after ; 
Ah! none can compare with our Queen of the Fleet." 




CHAPTER XIV. 



FLOTSAM AND JETSAM. 




T is useless to evade the facts. 
Disguise it as we may the 
simple truth remains that 
the American sailor, con- 
considered as an American, 
is but a relic of the past. 
American commerce still 
exists. Its statistics for 
1 88 7 show a record of 
twenty-three thousand and 
sixty-three craft (embracing 
steam and sailing vessels, canal boats and barges) with a total 
carrying capacity of over four million tons.* The tonnage we 
employ, including all that floats on salt water and fresh, is the 
largest in the world. Our commerce, foreign and domestic 
combined, is greater than that of any other nation. Our foreign 
commerce alone reached in 1887 a total valuation of over fifteen 
hundred millions of dollars. The domestic commerce very 
largely exceeds this amount. 

But the registered tonnage of the Unites States — the ves- 
sels actually sailing under the stars and stripes — is decreasing 
rapidly. While American commerce has grown to enormous 



The exact figures are 15,735 sailing vessels, 5,481 steam vessels, 910 canal boats and 937 barges. 

294 



FLOTSAM AND JETSAM. 295 

proportions, American transportation has as marvelously de- 
clined. Of the " goods, wares and merchandise " exported and 
imported into the United States of America in the year 182 1, 
eighty-eight and seven tenths per cent, were transported in 
American vessels and eleven and three tenths per cent, in for- 
eign " bottoms." In 1887 American vessels carried but thir- 
teen and eight tenths per cent, of America's commerce while 
foreign vessels carried eighty-seven and two tenths. In 1855 
the ship-building industry of the United States produced an 
aggregate tonnage of 583,450. In 1886 the same industry pro- 
duced a total tonnage of but 95,453. This decrease has been 
especially marked in the past four or five years. In 1883 there 
were built in the United States 1268 vessels of all descriptions. 
In 1886 there were built but 715. 

It is in no sense the province of this book to enter into a 
discussion of the reasons for this decline in the once proud 
"merchant marine " of America. Politicians and political econ- 
omists have warred over the question for a quarter of a cent- 
ury. Advocates, now of Free Trade and now of Protection, 
have engaged in wordy conflict over the matter and discharged 
against each other arguments, figures and statistics more formi- 
dable than the crashing broadsides once exchanged by the old- 
time line-of-battle ships. And still the decrease goes on while 
each year's statistics prove only more and more clearly the 
actual decline in numbers and in morale of the American sailor. 

Of the sixty thousand seamen employed upon United States 
shipping more than one half are foreigners. Lascars and Port- 
uguese, Germans and Scandinavians, British and Italians largely 
make up the crews of American vessels, and the recent exhibit 
of our fishery statistics show how meagre is the real Yankee 
element even in this domestic industry. 



296 FLOTSAM AND JETSAM. 

" The men that sail out of New York before the mast," says 
Mr. Heyvvood, " are beyond doubt the most ruffianly in the 
world. They are of all nationalities and seldom article for the 
voyage, but for the run, leaving the ship as soon as she touches 
the dock." 

" When I was a boy at sea," writes Mr. Nordhoff, " the 
American flag was to be found literally on every sea, and the 
American ship was the tautest, the best fitted, the best sailer 
and made the most successful voyages. The American ship- 
master was by far the most intelligent of his class. He had 
the air as he had the habit of success. He had not only sea- 
manship, but brains and a commercial education." 

It is far different to-day. Yankee ships, in foreign ports, 
are, as one old sailor has testified, "as scarce as hen's teeth." 
The commerce of America sails in foreign " bottoms " and ob- 
servant seafarers allege, with reason, that " the flag that once 
floated over the fastest ships and shielded the best sailors in the 
world will, in a few years, be a stranger on the ocean." 

" Why, bless my heart," cried a waggish English captain 
when, not long since he spoke the stars and stripes on the 
South Pacific course, "that must be a Yankee ship. I remem- 
ber seeing that flag when I was a boy. The poor fellow must 
have drifted off the coast and got lost. Hadn't yer better chalk 
the reckoning on the head of a barrel, Mr. Buntline, and give it 
to him and tell him to get home as fast as he can ? " 

And if the character of the sailors, as a class, is low so too 
has that of the captains deteriorated. Mr. Jewell, formerly 
United States Consul at Singapore, is authority for the state- 
ment that " not one sea captain in ten is a just and conscien- 
tious man. He is low in origin, low in education, low in im- 
pulse." Spite of the protections thrown about seamen by the 



FLOTSAM AND JETSAM. 299 

American shipping laws the tyranny of the quarter-deck is still 
unmitigated and absolute. The reputation of American skip- 
pers among sailors is that of a "slave-driver" and, in truth, on 
far too many merchant ships brutality and injustice are the 
governing: forces. 

" If you hear a story of brutal outrage committed on some 
foremast hand," says Mr. Heywood, " whether perpetrated in 
China, on the burning slave coast or in frozen Labrador, in 
nine cases out of ten you will learn that the principal is an 
American skipper." " It is a source of wonder to many who 
have donned the blue and served a term before the mast," 
declares Mr. Skinner, " that mutinies do not occur on half the 
merchant ships afloat. Were day laborers compelled to work 
as long, fare as hard and be treated as cruelly as are sailors, 
the press of the land would ring with protests, labor leagues 
would organize to fight for justice, and legislative action would 
be sought to put a stop to further brutality." But, so both 
these last-quoted observers declare, there is no law for a com- 
mon sailor in the ports of the United States. Courts do not 
often declare in favor of the illiterate seaman when he seeks 
redress from his more influential captain. Complaint therefore 
being useless poor Jack seldom appeals from the tyranny of the 
quarter-deck. Low diet, unclean quarters, kicks, hard labor 
and hard words he has come to regard as " all in the day's 
work." His nature becomes changed, his habits degraded, his 
manliness disappears and the American sailor of to-day is no 
longer the " jolly Jack Tar " of thirty years ago when, so Mr. 
Nordhoff tells us, " we Yankees counted ourselves the best 
men that sailed the seas." 

Of course this is the darkest side of the picture. There are 
still fine ships, considerate captains and decent seamen in the 



300 FLOTSAM AND JETSAM. 

American merchant service, but they are, unfortunately, the 
exception rather than the rule and American seamanship has 
with the decrease of American tonnage visibly declined. 

For both these waning conditions there exist reasons other 
than those advanced by economists and politicians. First and 
foremost the American sailor is the victim of the advance of 
science. The practical application of steam as a motive power 
on the water and the substitution of iron for wood in the con- 
struction of vessels, as these have reduced the proportionate 
number of ships needed to transport the world's commerce 
have also reduced the need for able seamen and the number as 
well. Your true sailor heartily detests the steam service. The 
mercantile marine of to-day, he declares, does not need sailors ; 
" any pier-head loafer will serve its turn." The pay and the 
work are those of the stevedore while the chances for life when 
one is in peril on the sea are materially lessened. A wooden 
ship, even when wrecked, will float but your iron shell, as one 
old seaman puts it, " washes under and goes down like a stone." 
No sailor, Mr. Heywood asserts, will, " if he can help it, ship 
on a commercial steamer and ' pot-wallop ' about her decks in 
grease and dirt." 

Again, as has been shown, the American merchant marine 
has never recovered from the blow inflicted upon it by Con- 
federate cruisers during the days of the Civil War. The carry- 
ing of ocean freights passed to foreign vessels and the lost 
ground has never been recovered. The discovery of petroleum 
and the use of gas and electricity as methods of illumination 
affected the great whale-fishing industry so disastrously "that 
where once fortunes were made in a few years by experienced 
whalemen the whale fleets have now practically disappeared 
and the returns even of a successful whaling voyage scarcely 



FLOTSAM AND JETSAM. 301 

repay the time and money invested. As to the other causes 
cited by students of America's maritime decline — the existence 
of a protective tariff, the indisposition of Government to grant 
subsidies, mail contracts and other fostering helps, and the 
backwardness of America's development of her coal and iron 
mines — these must be left to the wisdom of national legislators 
for settlement and need not here enter into the recital of the 
story of the American sailor. 

But with hope in the future — which always means progress 
and not retrogression — it is for us in this closing chapter of 
the Yankee seaman's story to gather the stray scraps of his 
record that have not yet found a place herein — the flotsam and 
jetsam that, if he is scuttled and breaking up, float in upon us 
as we seek to save from the wreckage of the past some indi- 
cation of his manliness, his courage, his frailties and his 
customs in the days gone by. 

The American sailor, in his better days, had always a pride 
in his profession. He was brave ; he had a strong sense of 
duty and although accustomed to think, as Mr. Nordhoff says,, 
that " the man who could hand, reef, steer and heave the lead 
was the best of created beings," he had a love for his calling 
and a loyalty to his ship that made him a hearty comrade, a 
sure reliance and a firm friend. " Be true to your ship," was the 
sailor's eleventh commandment. He might sometimes fracture 
the other ten, but this one he ever kept intact. Though in his 
" growly " moments (and your real " salt " always holds as one 
of his inalienable rights the privilege to grumble) the sailor 
might abuse his vessel as " an infernal old bucket " he is quick 
to resent criticism of his floating home by a stranger. " I have 
known," says Mr. Heywood, " a surly, silent mate who had a 
orowl for every one and a good word for no one, stamp and 



3 o2 FLOTSAM AND JETSAM. 

clap his hands with delight at overhauling and passing some 
rival ship, and sarcastically order the cook to ' git out yer 
bellers and make a wind for that there craft on the port- 
quarter.' " 

On board a good ship there was plenty of good will. From 
master and mate to cook and cabin boy there was a desire to do 
one's duty and an ambition to do it well. Despite the vices 
that confinement breeds there was both clean thinking and 
clean living on a well-manned vessel. " A ship's forecastle rilled 
with an able crew," says Mr. Nordhoff, " is a very respect- 
able place compared with a country store on a winter evening. 
Such a crew — and there are such yet, O sea! — such a crew 
usually knows how to take care of itself. It is when half a 
dozen good sailors are, by the carelessness of owner and captain 
and the rascality of agents and boarding-house keepers, mixed 
up with a dozen or a score of skulking scoundrels, that the fore- 
castle and the whole ship presently becomes a place fit only for 
devils." 

Good-will as it breeds comradeship creates too an equality of 
labor. With a good crew it is share and share alike and where 
this develops a spirit of independence it also contributes to the 
growth of manliness. A sea life tests the virtues as it fosters 
the vices of humanity. This latter quality (the desire to appear 
manly, whatever happens) is often pushed to extremes. " An 
overstrained sense of manliness," says Mr. Dana, " is the charac- 
teristic of sea-faring men. If a man comes within an ace of 
breaking his neck and escapes it is made a joke of ; no notice 
must be taken of a bruise or cut. Any expression of pity or 
any show of attention would look sisterly and unbecoming a 
man who has to face the rough and tumble of such a life." 

Off Cape Horn, on a dark and stormy night, the men on an 



FLOTSAM AND JETSAM. 303 

American ship were reefing topsails. Every motion was fraught 
with danger and a plunge overboard meant no rescue. One of 
the younger lads lost his hold of the reef point and slipped 
from the foot rope. He would have gone down to his death in 
an instant had not his nearest neighbor, a powerful seaman, 
caught him by the collar and hauled him back on the yard. 
Neither sympathy nor concern were expressed by the rescuer, 
however much he may have felt for the lad. " Hold on another 
time, you young monkey," he growled as he "yanked" the boy 
up. And that was all that was said of the affair. 

Once, in the China Seas, while their vessel was pitching 
bows under with every sea two men went out to stow the fly- 
ing jib. As they were working their way back the ship gave a 
tremendous pitch and both men lost their hold. But as they 
fell they grabbed the foot ropes and hanging thus to a tossing 
ship, between wind and water, they managed to work their 
perilous way hand over hand to the bowsprit shrouds. " H'm ! " 
grunted a tough old salt as his half-drowned comrades clam- 
bered on deck again, "you fellers wanted to show how smart 
you were — cuttin' about on the foot-ropes; didn't you? A 
little more and you'd 'a' gone to Davy Jones." And when thev 
tried to explain matters they were only met with jeers and 
became for days the laughing-stock of the forecastle. 

Out of the comradeships of the forecastle comes also the 
closer bond of personal friendships. Two men who " take to 
each other " will have a community of interest alike in goods, 
in plans and in work. This, in forecastle language is " chummy- 
ship " and " to have a good chum," says Mr. Nordhoff, "is one 
of the pleasantest parts of a voyage." To lend an oil-jacket 
is the highest test of friendship ; for the generosity of a sailor 
though it may apply to every other article he owns stops, for 



3 o 4 FLOTSAM AND JETSAM. 

some reason or other, at the oil-jacket. The loan of this piece 
of waterproof property is therefore considered as the surest 
indication of " chummy-ship." 

The ever-present dangers that encompass a sailor's life make 
him active and alert, obedient to the word of command and 
ready in every emergency. 

" Jump ! jump, you scoundrel ! " shouted the captain to that 
adventurous sailor-boy who, foolishly daring, had crawled out 
to the end of the main-royal yard and clung there for his life. 
The lad, trained to obedience, leaped from that cruel height 
and was saved. And it is this readiness to " mind orders " that 
is a sailor's salvation in many a moment of peril. The "Stand 
by the royal halyards ! " that indicates the rising storm and the 
" Hoist away the top-gallant yards ! " that tells of the passing 
of the squall alike find men alert to respond. And, whether to 
accompany the " slip-slap " of the windlass as the anchor of the 
homeward-bound ship comes up from foreign soil or to inspirit 
all hands when, in a gale of wind, they mast-head the topsail 
yard or set to work at the halyards, the inevitable " shanty " is 
yelled out at the top of strong and vigorous lungs. 

Song lightens labor and has always been one of the sailor's 
most potent helpmeets. It is asserted that there is less singing 
among American sailors than with those of other nationalities, 
but be this as it may the American sailor has his own share of 
" shanties " and scraps of sentimental doggerel. There is a 
song and chorus for almost every piece of shipwork. " Whis- 
key makes a poor old man — O whiskey, whiskey!" hauls up 
the mainyard ; "Away, haul away — haul away, Josey," hauls 
taut the weather mainbrace as also does " Haul the bowline 
— Kitty, you're my darling ; " " A Yankee ship came down the 
river — Blow, my bully boys, blow," heaves up the anchor and 



FLOTSAM AND JETSAM. 307 

" Lorenzo was no sailor, — 'Renzo, boys, 'Renzo," hauls up the 
foretopsail yard. " A song," says Mr. Dana, " is as necessary 
to sailors as the drum and fife to a soldier. They must pull 
together as soldiers must step in time and they can't pull in 
time, or pull with a will, without it. Many a time, when a 
thing goes heavy, with one fellow yo-ho-ing a lively song — 
like ' Heave to the girls ! ' ' Nancy O ! ' ' Jack Crosstree,' 
'Cheerily, men,' etc., — has put life and strength into every 
arm." 

As song is the sailor's labor-lifter so is story-telling his time- 
killer. Your old-time sailor, with a life filled with vicissitude 
and adventure, was a regular storehouse of stories and the long 
hours of the watch or the Sunday leisure were given largely to 
listening to his "yarns." Says Mr. Nordhoff: " With the good 
ship hove-to under a close-reefed maintopsail, or a storm-miz- 
zen, the helm lashed down hard a-lee, and everything snug, 
alow and aloft, the watch gathers together under the topgallant 
forecastle or on the forehatch spinning long yarns of past gales, 
or sprees on shore, and the few hours slip away before one 
knows it." 

The " sprees on shore " have ever been the sailor's bane. 
Rum is and always has been his chief root of evil. Despite the 
incessant work of temperance people among our seamen, despite 
the watch that is set upon those " carrion of the shore " the 
keepers of sailors' boarding-houses, their runners and their aids, 
despite the abolition of the "grog ration" on our men-of-war (ac- 
cording to Commodore Matthew Perry " one of the fomenting 
causes of evil on shipboard ") and all the other attempts that 
have been made to stay the tide of drink this foulest enemy 
of manliness is still the sailor's greatest curse — sapping alike 
his energy, his usefulness and his life. Boston's " Black Sea " 



3 o8 FLOTSAM AND JETSAM. 

and New York's Cherry Street with their rows of vile dens 
and their still viler inmates have done to ruin many a 
gallant tar. 

But the gallant tar has still another weak spot. This, 
though not a plague spot like the curse of rum, is one 
that influences many a stalwart sailor and has not unfre- 
quently turned even his bravery into cowardice. It is his 
superstition. 

Bred to a life that has to do with many of the phenomena 
of nature while at the same time he has neither the intelligence 
nor the indifference that governs the more preoccupied lands- 
man, the speculations of the sailor upon the things he sees and 
hears and so often experiences run naturally into superstition. 
To him as to all simple folk a thing that seems to defy ex- 
planation is of the supernatural. The sailor's shifting horizon 
of sky and wave incloses many an uncanny apparition, many a 
sign and portent. Here again the introduction of steam as a 
motive power and the innovations of modern life have caused 
a marked decrease in the sailor of the old type, but there are 
still enough of these picturesque elements left, among those old- 
time seamen who remain, to make the decline of superstition 
slow even if it be sure. 

There are still many firm believers in the mermaid, the sea 
serpent and the phantom ship. One of these marine visions — 
the phantom ship — has afforded the poets of to-day themes for 
verse and romance. Whittier's Orr's Island legend of "The 
Dead Ship of Harpswell " out-flies even the Flying Dutchnian 
itself, while his poem of the lost Palatine that, lured on the 
rocks by wreckers, and plundered and burned by them, still sails 
its ghostly course across Long Island Sound, is almost tragic 
in its startling outlines : 



FLOTSAM AND JETSAM. 309 

" For still, on many a moonless night, 

From Kingston Head and from Montauk Light 

The spectre kindles and burns in sight. 

Now low and dim, now clear and higher 
Leaps up the terrible Ghost of Fire, 
Then, slowly sinking, the flames expire. 

And the wise Sound skippers, though skies be fine, 
Reef their sails when they see the sign 
Of the blazing wreck of the Palatine ! " 

So, too, as the American sailor's Flying Dutchman has 
for himself and his mates a real existence, do they tell of mer- 
maids and of mermen seen as lately as 1S81, while the perennial 
sea-serpent is to them an ever-present reality. 

Believing in phantom ships they have also an unshaken 
belief in ghosts. The " shrieking woman " of Marblehead still 
haunts the rocky coasts about that typical sea-port town while 
the Block Island natives see even to this day the ghostly 
refugees of Revolutionary days struggling to make a shore 
they can never reach. The phantom crew of the foundered 
Johnson still haunt the deck of the ghostly Hascall that ran 
them clown and Bret Harte's beautiful Greyport Legend keeps 
alive the story of the lost children of Portsmouth. 

The minor superstitions are well-nigh legion. A playful 
cat on shipboard is a sure sign of a storm — "a cat, 1 ' says the 
forecastle tradition, "has a gale of wind in her tail." A dead 
body kept on board ship always brings ill-luck. A shark fol- 
lowing in a ship's wake is a most fatal omen. Ill-luck when 
explainable by no other cause is by the sailor ascribed to the 
presence of some guilty or objectionable person on board — the 
" Jonah " of the crew or the cabin. So, too, if a person may 



3io 



FLOTSAM AND JETSAM. 



not be himself objectionable his name may be and woe to the 
shipmate or the passenger who brings an unlucky name on 
board. It is still the sailor's firm belief that a sick man cannot 
die until the tide begins to ebb, and every seaman can appreci- 
ate with peculiar force that sentence in " David Copperfield " 
(for New England no less than old England holds to this 




A "yarn" of the sea. 



theory) that describes the death of Barkis : " And it being high 
water he went out with the tide." 

Even modern science has not entirely dispelled the belief 
in the influence of the St. Elmo lights — malign or helpful 
according as the light may settle on the lower rigging betoken- 
ing a storm or play around the tops foretelling good sailing 
weather. The " corposant " (as many sailors, torturing the old 



FL O TSAM AND JE 7 SAM. 3 1 1 

Spanish, call this uncanny ball of light) if it plays about the 
yard-arm and throws its pale light full in any one's face is a sure 
sign of death and even now the most intelligent sailor regards 
this electrical freak of nature as a solemn and certain warning. 

But with all his failings and with all his frailties the 
American sailor is entitled to the praise and gratitude of his 
countrymen and his story is replete with deeds of heroism, self- 
sacrifice, fidelity and chivalry. 

The peaceful records of humane societies are fully as 
eloquent as the martial Roll of Honor. He who pulls the life- 
boat is often as grand a hero as he who wields the boarding 
cutlas, and the brave fellows of the coast stations are among the 
sea's victors of peace. No fishing craft but can tell its story of 
courage, self-sacrifice and humanity; no merchant vessel but 
has its traditions of bravery in storm and stress, of helpfulness, 
fidelity and self-denial ; and even upon a humble canal boat a 
future president of the United States once made a record for 
pluck and manliness. 

Not alone upon bloody decks, murky with the smoke of 
cannon and horrid with the din of battle, have the seamen 
of America proved their right to the title of heroes. The 
bravery of Reuben James, who in one of those bloody fights 
with the pirates of Tripoli, deliberately thrust his head beneath 
a descending Moorish scimiter and saved Decatur's life 
almost at the expense of his own, finds its parallel in the 
heroism of black George the Savannah negro-sailor who drew 
into his own body the Indian bullet intended for his captain. 
The determination of Perry who in reply to the remonstrances 
of his officers that the wind gave the British ships the advan- 
tage exclaimed, " I don't care ; leeward or windward they shall 
fight to-day," is equalled by the pluck and resolution of the 



312 FLOTSAM AND JETSAM. 

Salem merchant, Captain Nathaniel Silsbee. Unjustly de- 
tained by the French consul in a neutral port in 1798 he 
demanded an investigation. " You cannot have it under two 
months," said the consul. " That is the extreme of unjustice," 
declared Silsbee. " I'll not leave this office until my case has 
been called. , ' And there, with a doggedness that was heroism, 
he sat for twenty-four hours without food or sleep until the 
consul in simple admiration of his obstinacy gave him a free 
discharge. " Why did you discharge the Yankee so quickly? " 
the consul was afterward asked. " Par bleu" replied the French- 
man, " I found I must either dismiss him or bury him and I 
preferred the former." 

When in the harbor of Marseilles in May, 1872, in the dead 
of night an Italian ship with a cargo of petroleum took fire 
there was consternation both on ship and shore. The burning 
vessel was surrounded by hundreds of valuable craft and they 
and the town were equally in danger. The citizens seemed 
paralyzed with fright ; the sailors were equally unmanned. 
Suddenly from the flagship of the little American squadron 
then in port sounded the shrill notes of bugles calling away the 
boats of the fleet. At once they were manned, twenty in num- 
ber, by the Yankee blue jackets and pulled rapidly toward the 
burning ship. Over the side of the Italian scrambled officers 
and men. The flaming vessel was speedily scuttled though 
the roaring flames almost drove the brave fellows off. Then 
the moorings were cast loose and, lashed stern to stern, the 
twenty American row boats towed the scuttled and blazing 
ship into the broader bay. Here she speedily sank and Mar- 
seilles and her shipping were saved. Truly — 

" Peace hath her victories 
No less renowned than war." 



FLOTSAM AND JETSAM. 313 

Upon the future of the American sailor it is vain to specu- 
late. While the risks of the shore prove so much less hazard- 
ous than the risks of the sea and the development of America's 
resources afford an easier path to fortune than does her foreign 
commerce the young life and the young strength that formerly 
sought opportunity upon the water will find it on the land. 
But a change for the better may come at last. The fast 
declining tonnage of the United States may be stayed and 
made to increase again by one or by none of the remedies 
proposed by politicians and economists. Out of the noble 
harbor of New York or in through the beautiful Golden Gate 
of the far Western sea-port the ships of America may bear the 
products of the fatherland in greater number than ever the past 
has seen, and the stars and stripes may again be met and 
honored upon every sea. 

Already the navy of the Union from being the laughing 
stock of the world has taken to itself new life. Legislators 
begin to appreciate that a navy, as has been said, is a source of 
economy. New cruisers are being builded. Since 1883 Con- 
gress has passed appropriations for the completion of five 
double-turretted monitors, the building of two sea-going iron 
clads and fourteen unarmored steel ships of varying sizes, and 
the arming of all these with the best and most powerful modern 
weapons of naval warfare. May there never be use for these in 
actual conflict. But preparation is always better than humilia- 
tion. There is a moral argument in the steel cruisers Newark 
and Charleston, and the armored battle ships Texas and Maine 
that foreign powers will appreciate and respect more effectively 
than arguments and apologies backed only by worm-eaten 
monitors and " obsolete war-veterans." 

But whether in war or peace, in naval or mercantile com- 



3 r 4 



FLOTSAM AND JETSAM. 



mission, on errands of mercy, on voyages of research, of dis- 
covery or of scientific exploration the American sailor has a 
record for courage, pluck and ability that should not be lost 
sight of by his brethren of to-day and must not be forgotten by 
the seamen of the future. 

Dim forecastle and plunging yard, breezy pilot house and 
throbbing engine room have their heroes and their inspira- 
tions quite as worthy imitation as the more exalted quarter- 
deck and bridge. And whatever the future of the American 
sailor, so far as increase in numbers or commercial strength are 
concerned, the world will hold him recreant if he fails to emulate 
the virtues, the heroism, the loyalty and the manliness of his 
prototypes and predecessors in a glorious past. 




THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE AMERICAN SAILOR 

WITH CERTAIN HAPPENINGS THAT HAVE AFFECTED HIS STORY 
PRESENTED IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER. 

As the American sailor we must here count only the native-born or strictly American resident of 
the United States dating from colonial times. The Mound Builder of prehistoric days, the 
Indian, the early discoverer and explorer can hardly be given place in this chronological sur- 
vey of America's sea-happenings in war and peace. From Leif Ericson to the landing of the 
Mayflower must be omitted as belonging rather to the pre-American period, though a few of 
the important events in "boat-building " preface the later chronology. 

1004. Thorvald the Norseman repairs his ship on Cape Cod. 

1509. Diego de Niceusa, shipwrecked on one of the West India " Keys," builds a " raft " to 
escape to the mainland. 

1510. Lope de Olano commences to build a caravel at the mouth of the Belen River. 
1516. Vasco Nunez de Balboa builds four brigantines (two of which were successfully 

launched) on the Pacific side of the Isthmus of Panama. 

1520. Martin Lopez builds two brigantines for Cortes on Lake Tezcuco. 

1521. Cortes's fleet of thirteen brigantines (built at Tlascala by Lopez) launched on Lake 
Tezcuco — April 28. 

1528. Panfilo de Narvaez built five unseaworthy brigantines on the Florida coast. 

1542. Luis de Moscoco (successor of De Soto) builds two large boats to escape down the 
Mississippi — June. 

1562. Nicholas Bane and his comrades build a pinnace on the South Carolina coast to 
escape to France. 

1607. Thomas Digby builds the pinnace Virginia at the mouth of the Kennebec. 

1613. Captain Samuel Argall of the Virginia colony attacks and captures DuThet's vessel 
at Mount Desert. 

1614. Captain Adriaen Block builds the Onrust (Restless) at the Manhattans (launched in 
the spring). 

1624. The Plymouth Colonists built two shallops for the coasting trade. 

1627. A pinnace built at Buzzard's Pay for trade with the Dutch at the Manhattans. 

1631. The Blessing of the Bay "the first American man-of-war" built on the Mystic River 
near Boston — launched July 4. The great Nieuw Netherlands, of eight hundred tons burden, 
built under the supervision of the Director Minuet at the Manhattans (New York). 

1632. A ship from Virginia brings two thousand bushels of corn to Boston. 

1636. A vessel of one hundred and twenty tons built at Marble Harbor near Salem. 
Governor Endicott sails against the Block Island Indians. 
1639. A " Boston ship" attempts the Northwest Passage. 

3'5 



3 i6 ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE AMERICAN SAILOR. 



1640. Master Hugh Peters, a Salem shipbuilder, builds a vessel of three hundred tons and 
Master Bourne, of Boston, one of one hundred and sixty tons. Raymbault and Jogues pass 
in a birch canoe around the North shore of Lake Huron to the Sault Sainte Marie to meet a 
council of the Chippewas. 

1644. Expedition from Boston sails to the help of French governor LaTour against his rival 
D'Aulnay. 

1645. A ship of four hundred tons built at Boston. 

1647. Master Edward Bangs launched at Plymouth a bark of fifty tons. The first vessel 
"of size" built by the Plymouth colony — January 24. 

1654. Fur traders from Montreal penetrate the Western lakes. Expedition sails from Bos- 
ton Harbor for the subjugation of Acadia. 

1660. Rene Menard coasts the southern shore of Lake Superior. 

1663. One hundred and thirty-two vessels reported in Massachusetts. 

1665. Claude Allouez passes along the southern shore of Lake Superior. 

1671. Captain Henry Morgan, the buccaneer, conquers Panama. 

1673. Marquette and Joliet descend the Mississippi River to within three days' journey of 
its mouth ; first river journey on record — May and June. 

1678. La Salle and Tonty cross Lake Ontario in a little vessel of ten tons, the first ship 
that sailed upon that fresh-water sea — November 18. 

1679. La Salle launches the Griffin on Lake Erie — May. Sails to Green Bay — August. 
Griffin sent back and La Salle and his men paddle up Lake Michigan — September. 

1680. Hennepin sails northward on Mississippi and is taken by the Indians. 

1682. La Salle descends the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico. 

1683. The Revenge, a pirate ship, Captain Cook, sets sail from Chesapeake, Virginia — 
August 23. 

1685. Captain William Phips of Boston discovers the Spanish treasure-wreck. 

1686. Henri Tonty descends Mississippi to meet La Salle. 

1687. James 11. sends a fleet which with the aid of the colonists should go against the 
pirates in the West Indies. 

1690. Sir William Phips commands an expedition to Nova Scotia — March 22. Captures 
Acadia. Leads an unsuccessful expedition against Quebec — August. 

1691. Captain William Kidd received one hundred and fifty pounds from New York for 
protecting the colony against pirates. 

1696. Captain Kidd entered New York harbor with a French fishing vessel he had captured 
— July 4. Sails for Madagascar — September 6. 

1699. Captain Kidd, turning pirate, is seized in Boston which he boldly visited with his 
alleged piratical crew. 

1700. Coast of Carolina infested by pirates. Nine captured. 
1704. Captain Church fails in an expedition against Port Royal. 
1707. Captain Southack fails in an expedition against Port Royal. 

1710. Colonial squadron capture Port Royal (Annapolis), in Nova Scotia. 

171 1. Admiral Sir Hovenden Walker commands an unsuccessful expedition against 
Canada — August 22. 

1713. Vessels built at Cape Ann Point rigged as schooners. 

1714. First out-and-out schooner built at Cape Ann. 

1717. Bellamy, a noted pirate, wrecked on Cape Cod and one hundred men drowned. 
Six of his crew who survived taken to Boston and executed. 

1718. Captain Maynard of Virginia defeats the pirate " Blackbeard." 

1723. Twenty-five Rhode Island pirates taken by Captain Solgard, found guilty and 
executed. 

1740. Governor Oglethorpe of Georgia leads an unsuccessful expedition against St. 
Augustine. 



ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE AMERICAN SAILOR. 317 

1741. Report of sixty fishing vessels in Marblehead of fifty tons and more. 

1742. John Howard said to have sailed down the Ohio River. Governor Oglethorpe of 
Georgia successfully attacks the Spanish fleet of invasion at St. Simon's Bay. Sails to St. 
Augustine and forces the Spaniards to submission. 

1744. New York fishermen burn an English frigate in revenge for press-gang cruelties. 

1745. Ship Massachusetts of four hundred tons built at Boston. Louisburg taken in 
June. 

The fleet of ten vessels, the largest mounting twenty guns, sailed from Boston in April. In 
the siege of Louisburg a French ship, sixty-four guns, richly laden with military stores, having 
on board five hundred and sixty men, was taken. 

1746. Admiral D'Anville's expedition for the capture of Boston scattered by storm — June. 
I 753- Philadelphia schooner Argo, Captain Swaine, attempts the Northwest Passage. 

Captain Taylor of Rhode Island attempts a similar voyage. 

1754. A second Arctic expedition under Captain Swaine loses three men on Labrador 
coast and accomplishes nothing. 

1755. Troops embarked from Boston in forty-one vessels for Nova Scotia. 

1758. Captain Atkins of Boston sails along the coast of Labrador and makes discov- 
eries. 

1764. Power given to commanders of British ships-of-war to seize vessels supposed to have 
goods and articles subject to duty. 

1768. Officers of Customs seize a sloop belonging to John Hancock and lying at his 
wharf. Great excitement — June. 

1771. Virginia ship Diligence sails for exploration to the Arctic regions. 

1772. A British armed vessel burnt by Providence sailors, under Whipple — June. James 
Wilder, of the ship Diligence, fitted out in Virginia by subscription, goes in search of the 
Northwest Passage and sails to 69° u'. 

1774. Boston is deprived of its rights as a port by the Boston Port Bill. 

x 775 J°hn Adams defends John Hancock for smuggling — April 19. Capture of the 
Falcon sloop-of-war by the seamen of New Bedford — May 5. Capture of the King's sloop 
Margaretta by the boatmen of Machias — June 12. Washington issues commission to Ameri- 
can privateers — September 2. Congress legalizes his action. Washington details two com- 
panies of the Marblehead regiment (under Broughton and Seiman) to man two American war 
ships and attack the enemy — October 16. London brigantine Nancy captured by American 
schooner Lee — November 29. Esek Hopkins appointed commander-in-chief of American 
nav) — December 22. 

1776. Spirited naval battle on Lake Champlain ; masterly escape of Arnold — October 11. 
Hopkins with a squadron of eight small vessels makes a descent on the Bahamas. Fights the 
ship of-war Glasgow — April 6. John Paul Jones appointed to command of the Providence — 
May 10. During the summer he takes sixteen prizes. Congress fixes the rank of Captain in the 
navy — October 10. The Andrea Doria captures two armed transports and many merchant- 
men. John Paul Jones captures armed ship Mellish and frigate Milford (autumn). Three 
hundred and forty-two English vessels captured by Americans during this year. 

1777. John Paul Jones starts on a cruise in the Ranger — the first vessel to display the 
American flag — November. Austin in Boston brigantine Perch carries news of Burgoync's 
surrender to Europe. Wickes carries the first national cruiser, with Franklin on board, across 
the ocean. Conyngham makes a raid on English shipping. Dolphin captured by British man- 
of-war Alert. 467 English vessels captured by the Americans during the year. American 
brig Cabot (one of the first American cruisers) captured by British. 

1778. Destruction of American frigates Washington and Effingham and capture of the 
Delaware and Virginia. D'Estaing arrives off the capes of Delaware with large French fleet. 
Capture of British war-ship Drake by Jones. He raids the Scottish coast. D'Estaing 
attacks British at Newport — April. 



3 tS ACHIEVEMENTS OE THE AMERICAN SAILOR. 



1779. Hopkins' squadron captures eight British transports off the Southern coast. Whip- 
ple in the Providence captures a British convoy of ten merchantmen. American cruiser 
Tyrannicide captures the Revenge. American cruiser Hazard defeats the Active. American 
cruiser Protector blows up the Revenge. Eighteen prizes brought into New London by Amer- 
ican privateers. Paul Jones in the Bon Homme Richard fights and captures the British 
frigate Serapis — September 23. Mutiny on board the Alliance (bearing Lafayette on board) 
revealed by an Irish-American sailor and prevented. American expedition against Penobscot 
sails from Boston — July 19. Defeated by Clinton — July 27. 

1781. American cruiser Alliance captures the Mars and Minerva — April. Captures 
Atalanta and Trepasy — May 28. English capture American ship Confederacy — June 22. 
Capture ship Trumbull — August. Captain Barney captures the British ship General Monk. 
American cruiser Congress captures the Savage — September. 

1782. Alliance makes a successful cruise. Captain Manly makes a brilliant cruise in West 
Indian waters. 

1783. First Fisheries Treaty. Captain Mooers in Nantucket ship Bedford first displayed 
the American flag in British port — London, February 6. 

1784. Ship Empress, of Boston, three hundred and sixty tons, Captain John Green master, 
sailed to China. The first vessel to display the American flag in the Eastern seas. 

1786. Clark ascends the Wabash to the Vermilion River. 

1787. The ship Columbia started from Boston on a voyage round the world; the first cir- 
cumnavigation performed by an American vessel. Sailed via Cape Horn to Northwest coast 
of America then to China, and returned via Cape of Good Hope to Boston. Arrived in 1790. 
Thomas Paine proposes steam navigation in America. 

1789. Massachusetts Humane Society makes first attempt at organized succor to seamen. 
Placed huts for shelter of wrecked mariners on desolate portions of coast. First hut erected 
on Lovell's Island near Boston. Northwest coast of America first visited by Captain Gray 
in the Washington. 

1792. Captain Kendrick in the Washington discovered Columbia River — May 7. Killed 
by a Spanish salute of welcome at Sandwich Islands. Captain Bunker in whale ship Wash- 
ington first displayed American flag in a Spanish Pacific port — Callao, July 4. 

1794. Six frigates built for service against the Algerines. Cod-fishery very largely pursued 
in New England. Keel of the frigate Constitution laid. Act passed creating a new navy. 
Six frigates ordered — March 27. 

1796. The sloop Detroit, bought of N. W. Fur Company, first carried the American flag on 
Lake Erie. 

1797. Frigate Constitution launched — October 21. Sloop Betsey (Captain Fanning) car- 
ried the stars and stripes round the world. Frigate Constellation launched at Baltimore — 
September 7. 

1798. Act passed for the construction of twelve vessels — April 27. Navy Department 
created. British squadron attack American sloop of war Baltimore. Benjamin Stoddert ap- 
pointed first secretary of the Navy — April 30. 

1799. Fight between the Constellation and French frigate Insurgente — February 9. 
Founding of Marine hospital of U. S. at Fort Independence. 

1800. Fight between Constellation and French frigate Vengeance — February 2. Ship of 
war Boston captured French corvette Berceau — October 12. 

1801. The sloops Washington and Wilkinson were the first vessels built on South shore 
of Lake Erie. First American Squadron under command of Commodore Dale sails against 
Tripoli. Enterprise, Lieutenant Sterrett, captures a Tripolitan cruiser. 

1802. Commodore Morris blockades the ports of Tripoli. Captain Rodgers destroys the 
Meshouda — June 22. 

1803. Commodore Preble blockades Tripoli — October [5. Frigate Philadelphia taken 
by the Tripolitans — October 31. 



ACHIEVEMENTS OE THE AMERICAN SAILOR. 319 



1804. Decatur destroys frigate Philadelphia, after re-taking it in a very daring manner 
— February 15. Preble's squadron fights the Tripolitans. Constitution bombards Tripoli — 
September 3. Lieutenant Somers blows up Tripolitan magazine — September 4. 

1805. Peace with Tripoli. Pike ascends and explores the Mississippi above St. Anthony's. 

1807. English armed vessels refused admission into the ports of the United States — 
July 2. A general embargo is declared by the U. S. Government — December 22. U. S. 
frigate Chesapeake resists the British claim to right of search. Fulton's first successful trial 
of steamboat on the Hudson — September 14. Massachusetts Humane Society established 
the first life-boat station at Cohasset. 

1808. American vessels captured and confiscated by both English and French. 

1809. The general embargo repealed — March 1. 

181 1. Fight between ships President and Little Belt — May 16. The first steamboat on 
Western waters left Pittsburg for New Orleans — October 20. 

1812. War declared against England — June 12. Commodore Rodgers in frigate President 
fires the first gun — June 22. Constitution escapes from five British frigates. Frigate Guer- 
riere, Captain Dacres, captured by U. S. frigate Constitution, Captain Hull — August 19. 
U. S. frigate Wasp takes the English sloop Frolic — October 18. English frigate Macedonian 
taken by U. S. frigate Constitution — October 25. British frigate Java surrenders to U. S. 
frigate Constitution — December 29. Embargo laid for ninety days — April 3. 

1813. U. S. ship Hornet takes the English sloop Peacock — February 25. U. S. frigate 
Chesapeake taken by the Shannon — June 1. Growler and Eagle taken by the English — June 
3. English ship Pelican seizes U. S. sloop Argus — August 14. Perry's victory on Lake 
Erie — September 10. 

1814. U. S. frigate Essex surrenders to Phoebe and Cherub — March 28. British ship 
Avon sunk by American sloop Wasp — September 1. Macdonough captures English squadron 
on Lake Champlain — September n. Captain Reid in privateer General Armstrong fights 
six British war-vessels off Fayal — September 26. Lafitte and his band of pirates captured by 
Commodore Patterson. 

1815. Attack on Algiers for breach of treaty. Lafitte and his Gulf pirates help the Ameri- 
can forces at New Orleans. British ship Endymion captures the frigate President. Captain 
Biddle on ship Hornet fires last shot of the war — March 23. 

1816. Private yacht, Cleopatra's Barge, launched at Salem. The owner and com- 
mander, Major George Crowninshield, made the first yacht trip across the Atlantic. 

1817. First steamboat ascends the Mississippi above the mouth of the Ohio — the 
General Pike, Captain Jacob Reed. It reached St. Louis August 2. The second — the Consti- 
ution arrived October 2. Amelia Island off East Florida taken by a squadron under the 
command of J. D. Henley from certain marauders who had seized it. 

1818. Fishery Treaty of 1S1S. Steam vessels first appeared on the Lakes. 

1819. First passage of the Atlantic by steam effected by the Savannah from New York to 
Liverpool. The Walk-in-the-Water, first steamboat on Lake Erie, began her trips through 
Erie, Huron and Michigan. The Independence entered the Missouri River — May 13. U. S. 
Steamboat Western Engineer under command of Major S. H. Long went on an exploring 
expedition up the Missouri — June 21. The same month a military expedition of twelve 
boats sailed up the River. 

1821. Gulf pirates defeated and scattered by American navy. Captain Palmer, of Con- 
necticut, made Antarctic explorations and discoveries. 

1824. David D. Porter commanded an expedition against West Indian pirates. 

1825. Opening of the Erie Canal. First barge reached Albany — October 20. Major-Gen- 
eral La Fayette ascended the Ohio River. 

1826. The man-of-war North Carolina, Commodore M. C. Perry, defends American 
commerce from Greek pirates in the Mediterranean. First steamboat navigates Lake 
Michigan. 



320 ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE AMERICAN SAILOR. 



1829. Commander M. C. Perry enters Russian waters in command of the sloop Concord. 
This was the first entry of an American man-of-war. 

1830. Treaty with Turkey securing the free navigation of the Black Sea — May 7. Ports 
reopened to British commerce — October 5. 

1832. Piracy of Malays punished by U. S. frigate Potomac. First steamboat at Chicago. 

1836. Nicollet explores the Mississippi to its source. 

1837. U. S. steamer Caroline is burned by Canadian Royalists near Schlosser for having 
brought assistance to the" rebels." Brig Creole sails from Hampton Roads for New Orleans 
laden with slaves and tobacco — October 27. Slaves obtain mastery of Creole, murder their 
owner and wound several of the crew, and sail for Nassau, New Providence — November 7. 
The English governor liberates all the slaves except those concerned in murder and mutiny. 
American brig Morrison driven out of Yeddo Bay, Japan, by cannon shot. The Fulton, 
the "pioneer of the American steam navy," launched at Brooklyn. Commodore M. C. Perry 
takes command — October 4. 

1838. Great Western steamship first sails from Bristol to New York. 

1839. Pilot-boat Flying Fish carried the stars and stripes further south than the ships of 
any other nation had gone — March. Wilkes expedition to the Antarctic. The first steam- 
boat arrival at Sault Sainte Marie — the Lexington. 

1840. Organization of Hoboken Model Yacht Club. Wilkes discovers land supposed to be 
a continent. 

1841. The twin U. S. war-steamers Missouri and Mississippi launched. 

1842. First submarine cable laid from Governor's Island to Battery. 

1843. United States Government send an eighty gun squadron under Commodore Perry to 
Africa to carry on a powder-and-ball policy against the Beribees (Africa) and secure a decent 
burial-ground for American sailors. 

1844. Hoboken Model Yacht Club became the New York Yacht Club. 

1845. U. S. Naval Academy opened at Annapolis. First regular Yachting Regatta in New 
York Harbor in July. 

1846. First match yacht race between Maria and Coquette. In July Commodore Biddle, in 
command of the U. S. steamers Columbus and Vincennes, made an unsuccessful attempt to 
negotiate a treaty with Japan. Commodore Stockton and his naval brigade capture Los 
Angeles, the capital of California — July- Commodore Sloat seizes Monterey and Commodore 
Montgomery Yerba Buena. Commodore Shubrick captures Mazatlan. Conner and Perry 
blockade the Mexican Coast and capture Tampico, Tabasco, Alvarado and Tuspan. 

1847. Congress made its first appropriation in assistance to shipwrecked mariners. Com- 
modore Perry in the frigate Mississippi rescues two shipwrecked crews on Green Island — 
March 21. Bombardment of Vera Cruz — March 24. Surrender of Vera Cruz and San 
Juan d'Ulloa — March 26. The Britannia defeats the Washington in the first steam ocean 
race — June. The Sitka is the first steamer to appear in California waters. Lieutenant Lynch 
sails for Smyrna in the Supply, as commander of the Dead Sea Exploring Expedition. 

1848. Commander Glynn sent in the brig Preble to Japan to reclaim twenty-three American 
sailors imprisoned there. He was successful. Lieutenant Bailey, of the Lexington, takes 
San Bias. The first steamboat communication between San Francisco and the interior, by 
the Pioneer, on the Sacramento river — April. Lieutenant Lynch performs the journey from 
Lake Tiberias to the Dead Sea in two metallic life-boats. 

1849. Lopez's expedition to Cuba organized in New York frustrated by proclamation of 
President. The Southern Yacht Club was formed with headquarters at New Orleans. The 
first steamer between New York and San Francisco is received with great rejoicing — Jan. 19. 

1850. Grinnell equipped two vessels commanded by Lieutenants De Haven and Griffith 
and accompanied by Dr. Kane. Lopez organized a second expedition to Cuba. Landed and 
took possession of Cardenas — May 19. First steamboat above Falls of St. Anthony, Missis- 
sippi River. 



ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE AMERICAN SAILOR. 321 



1851. Ship Cleopatra seized for assisting Lopez. Yacht America built, sails across the 
ocean and beats the whole Royal Yacht Squadron, winning the famous America Cup. 
Lopez fitted out another Cuban expedition against Cuba in New Orleans. The Pacific crosses 
the ocean in nine days, ninteen hours and twenty-five minutes. Considered very fast — May 20. 

1852. U. S. ship Crescent City boarded at Havana and not allowed to land her mail or 
passengers. Act of Congress approved calling into existence the lighthouse board of United 
States — August 31. Perry's expedition sails to Japan — November 24. 

1853. Dr. Kane led an Arctic expedition in the Advance. William Walker set sail from 
San Francisco on his first filibustering expedition — October 15. Commodore M. C. Perry 
delivered the President's letters to Japan and gave notice of his return the following year — 
July 14. Clipper ship Dreadnaught beats the Cunard steamer Canada in an ocean lace. 

1854. U. S. vessel Black Eagle is seized by the Spaniards at Cuba. Captain Hollins of 
the corvette Cyane bombards Greytown in Central America. Reciprocity treaty between 
Great Britain and United States regarding fisheries — July 13. Commodore M. C. Perry 
appeared in Japanese ports with a fleet of twelve vessels and negotiated a treaty — February 12. 
Carolina Yacht Club organized. N. Y. Club sailed first race at Newport. 

1855. ^ r - Kane abandoned his ship — May 17. Same year Lieutenant Hartstene sent 
out to search for Kane. Commodore John Rodgers explores Alaska Coast and Behring 
Strait — August. 

1856. The Arctic ship Resolute formally presented to Queen Victoria by U. S. Govern- 
ment — December 16. 

1857. William Walker, the filibusterer, surrendered to Commodore Davis of U. S. sloop- 
of-war St. Mary's — May 1. Same year organized another expedition in New Orleans, but sur- 
rendered again to Commodore Paulding — December 8. 

1858. Lieutenant Moffat seizes the American slave ship Echo and takes her to Charleston. 
William Walker attempted another filibustering expedition, but was seized at mouth of 
Mississippi River. Jersey City Yacht Club organized. 

1859. Dreadnaught made the fastest run across the Atlantic then ever made by a sailing 
vessel (3000 miles in 13 days, 8 hours). 

i860. The Great Eastern arrives at New York — June 23. Dr. Hayes set sail for the Arctic 
Regions in schooner United States — July 10. Charles F. Hall set out on polar expedition — 
September 7. The Connaught from Galway to Boston, largest vessel then afloat except 
Great Eastern, caught fire a few hundred miles from Boston. A small American brig came up 
and though of only 198 tons burden succeeded in saving every one of six hundred persons on 
board — October 7. William Walker makes his last filibustering expedition — June 27. 

1861. Bombardment of Fort Sumter — April 12. Blockade of Southern ports — April 19. 
Mason and Slidell taken from the English mail steamer Trent — Novembers. Steamer 
Star of the West fired upon in Charleston Harbor — January 4. Confederate steamer Nash- 
ville burns the Harvey Birch — November 21. U. S. Naval Academy removed from Annap- 
olis to Newport. 

1862. Rebel ram Merrimac destroys Cumberland and Congress in Hampton Roads — 
March 8. Monitor compels Merrimac to retire — March 9. Farragut attacks and passes the 
New Orleans forts. Capture of New Orleans — April 24. Confederates blowup the Merri- 
mac — May 11. Farragut's fleet passes the batteries at Vicksburg — June 28. Monitor sinks 
off Cape Hatteras during a storm — December 30. Burnside's Expedition sails — January 1 1. 
Takes Roanoke, N. C. — February 8 ; Newbern — March 14. Confederate cruiser Alabama 
captures many vessels — October to December. Clipper Dreadnaught beats her own record in 
the run from Queenstown (2760 miles in 9 days 17 hours). 

1863. Federal iron-clad fleet passes the batteries at Port Hudson — March 14. Charleston, 
S. C, attacked by monitors and gunboats. The Keokuk, a monitor, sunk — April 7. Vicks- 
burg surrendered — July 4. 

1864. The Federal war steamer Wachusett captures the Confederate cruiser Florida in the 



322 ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE AMERICAN SAILOR. 



port of Bahia. The Confederate steamer Alabama attacked and sunk by the U. S. corvette Kear- 
sarge near French coast — June 19. The Tallahassee destroys many U. S. merchantmen — 
July. Farragut passes the defenses of Mobile Bay and conquers the Confederate fleet — 
August 5. Charles F. Hall started on second Polar expedition. Rebel ram Albemarle blown 
up by Lieutenant Cushing — October 27. 

1865. The Confederate cruiser privateer Shenandoah surrendered to the English govern- 
ment after destroying many Federal vessels. U. S. Naval Academy moved back to Annapolis. 
Boston Yacht Club organized. 

1866. The Henrietta arrives at Cowes, winning the Ocean Yacht Race. 

1868. American yacht Sappho was beaten off the Isle of Wight by the English yacht 
Oimara — August 25. 

1870. American yacht Sappho won two out of three races with the English yacht Cambria 

— May 10-17. 

1871. An American fleet arrives at Corea to conclude a treaty ; trouble ensues. The Corean 
forts are attacked and destroyed and negotiations renewed. Charles F. Hall commands an 
Arctic expedition sent out by U. S. and Smithsonian Institute in ship Polaris. Organization 
of the life-saving system. English yacht Livonia beaten by the Columbia and Dauntless — 
October 16-25. 

1872. Sailors for the American fleet board and scuttle a burning ship in Marseilles harbor 
and prevent great destruction — May. Announcement of the Geneva award on Alabama 
Claims — September. Fishery treaty called the Washington Treaty. Tigress, Commander 
Greer, sailed to relieve Polaris — July 14. Commander Braine sent on same errand. The 
Polaris voyagers are rescued by the Scottish steamer Ravenscraig — June 23. 

1874. Arctic voyage of the Pandora (afterwards the Jeannette), Captain Young commander. 
James Gordon Bennet bore large share of expense. Nathaniel Bishop makes a voyage of two 
thousand miles in a paper canoe. 

1876. Navigation relieved by the blowing up of the obstructions at Hell Gate, near New 
York City — September 24. Loss of twelve American whaling ships in Arctic ice — October 
12. Alfred Johnson, a young man, started from America in the Centennial, a boat twenty feet 
long — June 15. Landed at Alercastle, Pembrokeshire — August 11. 

1877. Canadian and United States Fishery Commission meet at Halifax — June 15. It 
awards five million dollars damages to Canada — November 20. Fourteen Gloucester fishing 
schooners lost and fifty lives — January 11. 

1878. U. S. Life-Saving Service formally established by an act of Congress — June 18. 

1879. The Jeannette Arctic Exploring Expedition sailed from San Francisco. Lieutenanc 
DeLong, commander — September 26. Same year, Arctic Expedition of Lieutenant Schwatka. 

1880. U. S. revenue steamer Corwin goes in quest of the Jeannette. 

1881. Arctic exploring steamer Jeannette crushed in the ice — June n. In June the 
Rodgers, Lieutenant Berry, sailed in search of the Jeannette. Lieutenant Greely sailed on 
August 11, 1881, for Lady Franklin Bay. Two young sailors crossed the Atlantic in the City 
of Bath, a boat fourteen feet long, arriving at Falmouth — August 24. 

1882. A four-oared race on the Thames between the Hillsdale Club of Michigan and an 
English Rowing Club, ended in the defeat of the Americans — September 14. Lieutenant 
T. B. I.ockwood of the Greelv Expedition carried the American flag to the furthest point north 
yet reached by man — May lS. 

1884. The Nourmahal, first American steel yacht, launched. Steamers Thetis and Bear 
sail to the relief of Lieutenant Greely. The ocean race between the Cunard Line 
steamer Oregon and the National Line America from New York to Queenstown won by 
the Oregon in six days, twelve hours and twenty-seven minutes, beating the America six hours 

— October 1 5. 

1885. The first International Yacht Race for the America's Cup sailed by the American 
sloop Puritan and the English cutter Genesta— September 7. The vessels fouled and the 



ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE AMERICAN SAILOR. 323 



race was put off to the fourteenth, when the Puritan won. The Puritan won in a second 
race on the sixteenth, thus settling the contest. A storm off the coast of Labrador 
wrecked eighty vessels — October 11. Washington Fishing Treaty expired — December 31. 

1886. The second International Yacht Race, September 7, between the American yacht 
Mayflower and the British yacht Galatea. The Mayflower won in this, also in second 
race on eleventh, thus deciding the contest. In a schooner yacht race American Sachem defeated 
English Miranda — October 1. In sloop yacht race American Thetis beat English Stranger. 

1887. Third International Yacht Race between British cutter Thistle and the American 
sloop Volunteer won by the Volunteer — September 27. Congress orders construction of 
five new steel war vessels. 

1888. In yachting season: Volunteer wins Eastern Yacht Club regatta — June 27. 
Stranger wins American steam yacht regatta. Pappose outsails everything — Julv 21. 
Launch of dynamite cruiser Vesuvius. Launch of U. S. war cruiser Baltimore — October 6. 
Launch of Gunboat Petral — October 13. International canoe race at Stapleton N. Y., won 
by American canoe Eclipse — October 13. 






THE BEST HUNDRED BOOKS ON THE 
AMERICAN SAILOR. 

It is no easy task to select from the multitude of books devoted to the life 
of the American sailor afloat a list that may be presented as really the " best 
hundred." Naval and mercantile biographies, economic, statistical and scien- 
tific treatises, romances, tales and sketches, sober histories and humorous nar- 
ratives exist in great number and many of them are of sufficient excellence 
to warrant place in such a list. The books that, limited to one hundred, upon 
examination have appeared to treat in most detail and diversity the experi- 
ences, history, romance, duties and life of the American sailor have been set 
apart and their titles are here presented as an attempt toward a comprehensive 
but by no means complete list of the naval and maritime portions of America's 
story. Many more might rightly claim admittance, some already included 
might properly give place to others, but taken as a whole the list will, it is 
hoped, serve as a basis for selection or reference for such readers as may 
desire to go more fully than this book has been able into the always sugges- 
tive and entertaining story of the American sailor. 

Abbott (John S. C). 

Captain William Kidd, and others of the pirates or buccaneers who ravaged the seas, the 

islands and the Continents of America two hundred years ago. 121110. 111. 373 pp. 

New York, 1874. 

Includes the stories of the careers of Kidd, Stede Bonnet, Teach (" Blackbeard "), Barthelemey, Lolonois, Mary 
Read, Anne Bonny, Sir Henry Morgan and Montbar. Told in the customary "Abbott" vein, but a healthy and 
entertaining volume. 

Abbot (Willis J.). 

Blue Jackets of '76 — a history of the naval battles of the American Revolution together 

with a narrative of the War with Tripoli. 8vo 111. 301 pp. New York, 188S. 

Blue Jackets of 1812. A history of the naval battles of the second war with Great Britain 

to which is prefixed an account of the French war of 179S. Svo. 111. 409 pp. New 

York, 1887. 

Blue Jackets of '61. A history of the navy in the war of secession. Svo. 111. 318 pp. 

New York, 1886. 

Mr. Abbot's books are graphic, picturesque, reliable and entertaining. He has a trenchant style and tells, his 
story well. 
Agassiz (Alexander). 

Three cruises of the U. S. coast and geodetic survey steamer Blake in the Gulf of 

Mexico, in the Caribbean Sea and along the Atlantic coast of the United States, from 1877 

to 1880. 2 vols. Svo. 111. 314 -f 220 pp. Boston, 1888. 

Strictly scientific but very interesting as detailing a peculiar phase of sea-work. 

3 2 4 






BEST HUNDRED BOOKS ON THE AMERICAN SAILOR. 32<; 



Ammen (Daniel). 

The Atlantic Coast. 121110. 273 pp. New York, 1883. Illustrations and maps. 

This is the second volume in the valuable series detailing the services of " The Navy in the Civil War— " Professor 
Soley's sketch being the first and Commander Mahan's the second volume in the series. 
Bowen (Francis). 

Life of Sir William Phips, Captain-general of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. 121110. 
102 pp. New York, 1839. 

In Vol. 7 of Sparks' " Library of American Biography." A life of Phips was also written by Cotton Mather 
and included in his " Magnalia." Both accounts furnish an interesting study of the first American sailor of his- 
torical note. 

Boynton (C. B.). 

History of the Navy during the Rebellion. 2 vols. 8vo. New York, 1868. 111. 
Bridge (Horatio). 

Journal of an African Cruiser. New York, 1845. 179 pp. Small 8vo. 

Written by an officer of the U. S. navy and edited by Nathaniel Hawthorne. 
Browne (John Ross). 

Etchings of a whaling cruise, with notes on Zanzibar and a brief history of the whale fishery. 

8vo. London, 1846. 111. 580 pp. 
Burgess (Edward). 

American and English Yachts. 4to. 111. New York, 1887. 70 pp. 

This is a description by the now famous American yacht builder of the most famous modern yachts in English and 
American waters with a treatise on yachts and yachting. 

Carter (Robert). 

A summer cruise on the coast of New England. Boston, 1870. 

"A delightful book. Full of humor, description, sentiment, natural history and almost perfectly written." — 
Literary World. 

Clark (H. H.). 

Boy Life in the United States Navy. 121110. 111. 313 pp. Boston, 1885. 
A capital description of life in the navy on training-ship and man-of-war, told in story form by a naval officer. 

Clark (Thomas). 

Naval History of the United States from the commencement of the Revolutionary War to 

the present time (January, 1814). 2 vols. Philadelphia, 1814. 121110. 

" The first book to treat the subject as a whole and a very creditable book for the period." — Solev. 

Clemens (Samuel L.). " Mark Twain." 

Life on the Mississippi. 8vo. 111. Boston, 1883. 624 pp. 

Underneath all its humor and nonsense lies much valuable information as to Western steamboat life before the 
Civil War. 

Cleveland (H. W. S.). 

Voyages of a merchant navigator of the days that are past. Compiled from the journals 
and letters of Captain Richard J. Cleveland. With portrait. i2mo. 245 pp. New York, 

1886. 

A remarkably entertaining account of the voyages and experiences of a Salem sea-captain in the first quarter of the 
nineteenth century. 

Coggeshall (George). 

History of the American Privateers and Letters of Marque. 422 pp. New York, 1861. 111. 

Cooper (James Fenimore). 
-History of the Navy of the United States of America. (To 1851.) 3 vols, in one. 8vo. 
New York, 1853. Portraits. 

The standard " unofficial " history of the U. S. naval service. " It is written in the somewhat pompous style of 
the period (1839) and although it has a strong fascination as a sea-story its historical value has been somewhat over- 
rated." — Solev. 

Lives of Distinguished American Naval Officers. Philadelphia, 1846. 
" Brief but of considerable merit." — Solky. 



326 BEST HUNDRED BOOKS ON THE AMERICAN SAILOR. 



Cooper (fames Fenimore), continued. 

Sea Tales. 

Cooper is the Marryatt of America. His "sea tales," says the Literary World, " are classics of their kind." 
These are as follows : 

The Pilot ; a tale of the sea. nmo. New York. 
" Long Tom Coffin is probably the most widely-known sailor in existence." — Duvckinck. 

The Red Rover; a tale of the sea. 121110. New York. 
" Surpasses the Pilot in animation and romance." — Literary World. 

The Water Witch. 121110. New York. 
A story of the Dutch occupation of New York. 

The Two Admirals. 121110. New York. 
Founded on the French naval service in the old French war. 

Wing and Wing; or le Feu-Follet. 
The Mediterranean during the Napoleonic wars. 

" Both the above are," says the Literary World, "spirited tales of naval warfare for which Cooper's previous 
studies of the naval history of the United States had given him abundant material." 

Afloat and ashore. i2mo. New York. 

Miles Wallingford. 121110. New York. 
These two stories deal with the days of search and impressment before 1812. 

Jack Tier; or the Florida Reef. i2mo. New York. 
" Has resemblances to the Water Witch." — Literary World. 

The Sea Lions; or the Lost Sealers. 
A tale of the Antarctic. " While not accounted one of Cooper's best, it has strong friends." — Literary World. 

Homeward Bound. 1 21110. New York. 

Home as Found. 121110. New York. 
These two are a sea tale and its sequel, devoted to a study of American society. The offence that their sarcasms 
occasioned Americans at the time of their publication would scarcely be possible now. 

Ned Myers; or Life before the Mast. i2tno. New York. 

Corbin (Diana Fontaine Maury). 

Life of Matthew Fontaine Maury. Portrait. 8vo. New York, 188S. 326 pp. 

The personal, domestic and scientific life of an eminent officer of the United States and Confederate navies, best 
known as the author of the " Physical Geography of the Sea." Written by his daughter. 

" It has neither table of contents, nor index, but apart from these drawbacks the book is one of absorbing interest, 
and is a valuable addition to our library of American biography." — The Critic. 

Cozzens (Fred S.j and others. 

Yachts and Yachting. 8vo. 111. 200 pp. New York, 1888. 

Comprises a detailed history of American yachting by Captain R. F. Coffin, and records of recent yachting seasons. 
Crowninshield (Mary Bradford). 

All Among the Lighthouses, or the Cruise of the Goldenrod. 8vo. 111. 392 pp. Boston, 1886. 
An excellent description of the lighthouses and the lighthouse service on the northern coast told for young people 
in story form. 

Dahlgren (Madeline V.). 

Memoir of John A. Dahlgren, Rear Admiral of U. S. N. Boston, 1882. 660 pp. 8vo. 
Portrait and illustrations. 

Dana (Richard Henry). 

Two years before the Mast. A personal narrative. New edition. i2mo. 470 pp. 

Boston, 8S7. 

A remarkably vivid and practical record of life before the mast thirty years ago. It leads all others as the book 
best descriptive of the life of the American sailor and has, deservedly, become a sea-classic. 

Davis (William M.l. 

Nimrod of the Sea; or the American Whaleman. i:mo. New York, 1874. 

"One of the most minute and satisfactory stories of whaling life. Full of information and very readable. " — 
Literary World. 



BEST HUNDRED BOOKS ON THE AMERICAN SAILOR. 



DeLong (Emma). 

The Voyage of the Jeannette. 2 vols. Boston, 1883. Portraits, maps, illustrations. 

A wife's tribute to a husband's enthusiasm and faith. The book is edited by Mrs. DeLong from the journals of 
her husband, G. W. DeLong, "lost in the Arctic." 

Disturnell (J.). 

The Great Lakes or Inland Seas of America. New York, 1863. Minneapolis, 1887. i6mo. 
Elliott (Charles B.). 

The United States and Northeastern Fisheries. 

A comprehensive history of the fishery question. 
Emmons (George F.). 

Navy of the United States (from 1775 t0 l8 53)- 4 t0 - Washington, 1863. 

" The best American work on the American navy and especially on the War of 1812. Unfortunately it is merely 
a mass of excellently arranged and classified statistics, and while of invaluable importance to the student is not inter- 
esting to the average reader." — Rossevelt. 

Farragut (Loyall). 
The Life of David Glasgow Farragut, First Admiral of the United States Navy. By his 
son. 8vo. 111. 586 pp. New York, 18S2. 

" Oh, while old ocean's breast bears a white sail, 
And Go3's soft stars to rest guide through the gale, 
Men will him ne'er forget, old Heart of Oak, 
Farragut, Farragut — Thunderbolt stroke ! " 

— Meredith. 

Fishbourne (E. G.). 

Our ironclads and merchant-ships. 
Foote (Andrew Hall). 

Africa and the AmericanFlag. i2mo. New York, 1854. 390 pp. 111. 

" An all-important work on the protracted labors of the navy in the suppression of the slave trade by Commodore, 
afterwards Rear-admiral Foote." — Soley. 

Greely (A. W.) 

Three years of Arctic service. 2 vols., 8vo. New York, 1886. Portraits, maps and charts. 
A graphic account of a harsh and bitter experience in the frozen north. 

Griffis (William Elliot). 

Matthew Galbraith Perry ; a typical American naval officer. With portrait. 121110. 459 pp. 

Boston, 1887. 

" One may help to build up character by pointing to a good model. To the lads of my country, I commend the 
study of Matthew Perry's career." — From Author's Preface. 

" Mr. Griffis' name is a guaranty of accuracy and his work shows literary taste and skill." — Soley 

Hale (Edward Everett). 

The Naval History of the American Revolution. In vol. 6 of Winsor's " Narrative and 

Critical History of America." 41 pp. Boston, 1888. 

The most complete and impartial sketch of the doings of American men-of-war during the Revolution. 

Stories of the Sea, told by Sailors. i2mo. 302 pp. Boston, 1SS0. 

Extracts from the narratives of the actors themselves, edited for young people. The American part of the 
" stories " deals with Columbus, Sir Richard Grenville, the Buccaneers, Paul Jones, and certain of America's naval 
battles. 

Hart (J. C.) 

Miriam Coffin, or the whale fishermen. 
A graphic description of Nantucket and the whale fishermen in the palmy days of that industry. 

Hawks (Francis L). 

Narrative of the Expedition to the China Seas and Japan, in 1S52-54, under Commodore M. 
C. Perry. 3 vols. Quarto. New York, 1856. 

Tells the story of the achievements of Commodore Perry in opening Japan to civilization. The first volume con- 
tains the general narrative of the expedition and this has been published separately. 






328 BEST HUNDRED BOOKS ON THE AMERICAN SAILOR. 



Hayes (Isaac I.). 

An Arctic Boat Journey in the autumn of 1854. 8vo. 375 pp. Boston, i860. Maps. 

The Open Polar Sea. 8vo. 434 pp. New York, 1867. 111. 
Headley (J. T.). 

Farragut and our Naval Commanders (1861-65). Svo. 316 pp. New York, 1867. 111. 
Hepworth (George II.). 

Starboard and Port. 

A yachtsman's book by a yachtsman. " Rich in nautical information and spicy anecdote." — Literary World. 
Heywood (Philip D.). 

An Ocean Tramp. i:rao. 111. 233 pp. Boston, 1888. 

Describes a phase of ocean life during the transition from sails to steam and the voyages of an American sailor 
in foreign seas. " A modern ' Two Years Before the Mast.' " 
Higginson (Thomas Wentworth). 

A book of American Explorers. 121110. 111. 367 pp. Boston, 1877. 

Describes for young people the early days of American discovery by the old navigators from Columbus to the 
Mayflower and Governor Winthrop. 

Travellers and Outlaws ; Episodes in American history. Boston, 1887. 

The sea " episodes " treated in this entertaining volume are " Old Salem Sea Captains," and " The Maroons of 
Jamaica." 
Hunt (C. E.). 

The Shenandoah; or, the Last Confederate Cruiser. 1867. 121110. 
James (William). 

Naval History of Great Britain from 1793 to 1827. 6 vols. 8vo. London, 1837. 

The sixth volume of this work is devoted almost entirely to a British account of the war of 1812. " An invaluable 
work," says Roosevelt, " written with fullness and care, but also a piece of special pleading by a bitter and not 
over-scrupulous partisan." 

Jewell (J. G.). 

Among our Sailors, with regulations governing the U. S. Merchant Service. 311 pp. 

New York, 1874. 121110. 
Kane (F.lisha Kent). 

Arctic Explorations. 2 vols., Svo. Philadelphia, 1857. Portraits and Maps. 

One of the most notable, as one of the most interesting records of arctic endeavor. 

Kingsley (Charles). 

Westward ho! or The adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh, Knight, of Burrough, in the County 
of Devon, in the Reign of her most glorious majesty Queen Elizabeth. 121110. London and 
New York, 1881. 

One of the noblest, gentlest, most romantic and most manly of sea stories and tales of adventure. Based on the 
achievements of the sailors of the days of Drake and Raleigh and Grenville, on the Spanish main. 

Lanman (Charles). 

Life on the Lakes. New YGrk, 1836. 2 vols. 111. Svo. 
Lindsay (W. L. ). 

History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce. 111. 4 vols. Svo. London, 1876. 
Lossing (Benson J.). 

Pictorial Field Book of the War of 181 2. Svo. 111. 10S4 pp. New York, 1S69. 

" Notwithstanding their ' popular' and pictorial character the great value of Mr. Lossing's books is well known 
to students. For topographical details he is invaluable and he gives attention to a multitude of side-points that 
throw much light on the main subject." — Solev. 

The Story of the United States Navy. 121110. 111. 418 pp. New York, 1SS0. 

The history of the navy told for young people in Mr. Lossing's attractive style. It covers the period from 1775 
to 1865. 

Loubat (J. F.). 
— Medallic History of the United States of America, 1776-1876. Folio. New York, 1878. 

170 etchings. 2 vols. 

A luxurious volume, very valuable. Details the medals presented for bravery at sea. 



BEST HUNDRED BOOKS ON THE AMERICAN SAILOR. 329 



Lynch (Wm. T.). 

Narrative of U. S. Expedition to River Jordan and the Dead Sea. Maps and illustrations. 

Philadelphia, 1S49. 8vo. 508 pp. 
Mackenzie (Alexander Slidell). 

Life of John Paul Jones. 2 vols. 121110. New York, 1848. 

" Written at the instance of Jared Sparks. Its merit is that it has sifted all the existing material and made a 
more readable and better constructed narrative than the others." — Hale. 

Life of Oliver Hazard Perry. 2 vols. i8mo. New York, 1S43. 

Life of Stephen Decatur. (In Vol. XXI. Sparks' American Biography.) 

" An excellent memoir which has the advantage of coming from a professional hand." — Solhy. 
Mahan (A. T.). 

The Gulf and Inland Waters. i2mo. 267 pp. New York, 1883. Maps. 

This is the third volume in the " Navy in the Civil War" series, Professor Soley's being the first and Admiral 
Ammen's the second volume in the series. 
Melville (George W.). 

In the Lena Delta. 8vo. 111. Boston, 1885. 497 pp. . 

This is Chief-Engineer Melville's narrative of the search for Lieutenant DeLong and his companions and is fol- 
lowed by an account of the Greely relief expedition. 

Melville (Herman). 

Omoo, adventures in the" South Seas (a sequel to Typee). 

Moby Dick; or the Whale. 

Melville's books are strongly American, romantic and full of incident and the flavor of the sea. "Omoo," says 
Douglas Jerrold, " has much of the charm that has rendered Robinson Crusoe immortal." 

Morris (Charles). The Autobiography of Commodore Charles Morris (from 1799 to 1840). 

Annapolis, 18S0. in pp. ivo. Portrait. 

" It is unique. It is the only narrative published by a naval officer of the elder period giving in his own words the 
story of his own life. . . . It offers a graphic picture of life in the service during that period." — Soley. 

Nordhoff (Charles). 

Cape Cod and all along shore. i2mo. Boston, 1S68. 

Short stories of sea-faring scenes, life and character on the New England coast. 

Sailor Life on Man-of-War and Merchant Vessel. 2 vols, in one. 8vo. 111. 753 pp. 

New York, 1S84. 

The first part details a boy's experience in the United States Navy, forty years ago; the second portion tells of a 
sailor-boy's vovages to see the world on a merchant-vessel of the same period. 

Whaling and Fishing. 161110. Cincinnati, 1856. 3 vols, in one. 111. 957 pp. 
Nourse (J. E.). 

American Explorations in the Ice Zones. Svo. 111. 624 pp. Boston, 18S4. 

Describes the Arctic expeditions of DeHaven, Kane, Rodgers, Hayes, Hall, Schwatka and DeLong, the relief voy- 
ages of the Corvvin, Rodgers and Alliance, the cruises of Long and Raynor, the Greely expedition, the discoveries 
of Lockwood and the naval explorations in Alaska. It also notices the Antarctic cruise of Wilkes and the U. S. Sig- 
nal Service Arctic observers. 
Parker (William Harwar). 

Recollections of a Naval Officer from 1S41 to 1S65. 121110. 372 pp. New York, 1881. 

The recollections of a naval officer in the United States service until 1S61 and in the Confederate Navy until the 
close of the war of the rebellion. Gossippy and diffuse but full of pictures of the life of American men-of-war's men. 

" His style is anecdotic and racy, but his facts are faithfully presented, his judgments are sound to the core and his 
impressions are sharply outlined." — Soley. 
Parkman (Francis). 
LaSalle and the Discovery of the Great West. 121110. 483 pp. Boston, 1880. Maps. 

A noble work largely descriptive of the enterprising French explorer who first sailed the great lakes and built and 
launched the first vessel that navigated America's inland seas. 
Parsons (Usher). 

Life of Sir William Pepperell. 121110. Boston, 1856. 352 pp. i2mo. Map. 

A fairly good life of the American leader of the " mettlesome enterprise " that captured Louisburg and led to the 
downfall of French dominion in Canada. 



y 



330 BEST HUNDRED BOOKS ON THE AMERICAN SAILOR. 



Phelps (W. D.). 

Fore and Aft; forty years experience of a Boston shipmaster. Boston, 1870. 

" Realistic, lively and wholesome." — Literary World. 
Porter (David D.). 

Memoir of Commodore David Porter. Albany, 1875. 8vo. 427 pp. 111. 

Qualtrough (Edward F.). 
The Sailor's handy book. i6mo. 111. New York, 1883. 594 pp. 
A guide to yachting and sailing for amateurs and professionals. 

Reed (Sir Edward J.), and Simpson, Edward. 

Modern Ships of War. Svo. 111. 2S4 pp. New York, 1888. 

The portion of this work devoted to American war ships and artillery was written by Rear-admiral Simpson of 
the United States Navy. 

Roosevelt (Theodore). 

, The Naval War of 1812, or the History of the United States Navy during the last war with 
( Great Britain ; to which is appended an account of the Battle of New Orleans. Svo. 
541 pp. New York, 1883. IN- 
The latest and by far the best account of the war of 1812. Vividly written and worthy to be esteemed a standard. 

Ruschenberger (William S. W.). 

Voyage Round the World, including an embassy to Muscat and Siam in 1835, 1836 and 1837. 

Svo. Philadelphia, 1838. 559 pp. 

An excellent description of foreign service in the navy by a navy surgeon. His " Three Years in the Pacific " is 
also a good contribution to the story of life in the American navy. 

Sabine (Lorenzo). 

Life of Edward Preble. (Vol. 22 of Sparks' American Biography.) 

" An invaluable book by far the largest part of which is taken up with a full and satisfactory examination of 
Preble's Tripoli Campaign." — Solev. 

Semmes (Raphael). 

Cruise of the Alabama and the Sumter. 2 vols. London, 1864. Svo. 111. 
Service Afloat. Baltimore, 1869. 8vo. Portrait and illustrations. 833 pp. 
Both books are experiences at sea written by the daring commander of the Rebel privateer Alabama. 

Sheppard (F. H.). 

Love Afloat ; a story of the American Navy. 

" One of the best sea stories of the last decade ; spirited, truthful and finely told. It never, we suspect, has had 
the reading it deserves." — Literary World. 

Soley (James Russell). 

The Blockade and the Cruisers. 121110. 257 pp. New York, 1883. Maps. 
This is Vol. I. in the series "The Navy in the Civil War," Admiral Ammen's sketch being the second and 
Commander Mahan's the third volume in the series. 

The Sailor Boys of '61. Svo. 111. Boston, 1S8S. 

The Boys of 18 12. Svo. 111. Boston, 18S7. 

Professor Soley is a very interesting and painstaking writer. His books are the fruit both of nautical knowledge 
and experience. 

Starbuck (Alexander). 

History of the American Whale Fishery to 1876. Svo. 767 pp. Waltham, 1878. Ilk 

Thornbury (George Walter). 

The Monarchs of the Main. London, 1876. 

Details the story of the Buccaneers. 
Tilton (Theodore). 

Tempest Tossed; a Romance of the Sea. 121110. New York. 

An interesting though somewhat overwrought story of sea and wreck, with a unique development. 



BEST HUNDRED BOOKS ON THE AMERICAN SAILOR. 331 



Wells (David A.). 

Our Merchant Marine; how it rose, increased, became great, declined and decayed. 121110. 

219 pp. New York, 1885. 

A careful though not a dispassionate study, from a free-trade standpoint, of the history and decline of the American 
merchant marine. 

Wilkes (Charles). 

Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition (1838-42). 8vo. London, 1845. 
This London edition is abridged into one volume from the large Philadelphia edition of five volumes. It records 
the antarctic expedition of Captain Wilkes. 

Winsor (Justin). 

Narrative and critical history of America. 8 vols. 8vo. 111. Boston, 1886-89. 

This important work seems to merit a place in this list even though all other distinctive histories of America are 
excluded. It is so thoroughly a student's work, contributed to by leading American historians and full of the results 
of careful record and research that it is one of the best factors in the study of the growth and story of the American 
sailor as well as of America itself. 



INDEX 



ADDERLY, Captain, insanity of , 67. 

Agassiz, Professor Alexander, on the sailor's interest 

in scientific research, 227. 
Alabama, The, destruction of, 253. 
Albemarle, The rebel ram, 256 ; destroyed by Cushing, 

260. 
Aleut warboat, iS. 
Algiers; trouble with, 141, 149. 
Allen, James, coolness of, 246. 
Alvinson, John, fortitude of, 165. 
America, The yacht, see Yachting. 
American Sailor (The), see Sailor. 
America's crusade, 107. 
Ammen, Admiral Daniel, on service of the navy during 

the rebellion, 262. 
Anderson, James, enthusiasm of, 177. 
Arctic Discoveries: early attempts, 43, 228; Grinnell 

expeditions, 231, 232; Dr. Kane, 232; Lieutenant 

Hartstene, 233; Commodore Rodgers, 233; Dr. 

Isaac J. Hayes, 233 ; Captain C. F. Hall, 233, 234; 

Lieutenant Schwatka, 334; Lieutenant De Long, 

234; Lieutenant Greely, 234 ; Lieutenant Ray, 234 ; 

of benefits 234 ; of fascinations 234. 
Argall, Samuel ; his audacity, 64, 90 ; Attack on Mount 

Desert, 91. 
Atlantis, Legends of, 29. 

BACHELOR, Mr. : on intelligence of American sea- 
men, 13S. 

Baffin, William, in the North, 43. 

Bainbridge, Captain, in Algiers, 150-152. 

Balboa, Vasco Nunez de, early American trader, 33 ; 
death of, 46 ; brigantines of, 48. 

Bancroft, George, on the "navy " of Cortez, 49; on 
colonial expedition against Louisburg, 107. 

Barney, Captain, commands the Hyder Ali in the fight 
with the General Monk, 128. 

Basques, see Fishermen. 

Bedford, Duke of, objects to colonial conquest of 
Canada, 108. 

Benjamin, S. G. W. ; on yachting, 287. 

Bennett, James Gordon, 276, 277, 27S. 

" Ben Scott," Captain of, defies Semmes of the Ala- 
bama. 

Biddle, Nicholas, success of, 132. 

Biddle, Captain, fires last shot j)f war of 1812 ; 169. 

Block, Adriaen, builds the Onrust, 53 ; sails Long Island 
Sound, 54. 

Blessing of the Bay, The, built, 58. 

Blockade runners, 250; captures of, 251. 

Boatbuilder ; the partridge the first, 12. 

Bourne, Master, early Boston boatbuilder, 59. 

Boyle, Captain, the privateer, 177. 



Breck, Captain, captures blockade runner, 251. 

Broughton and Selman, exploits of, 113. 

Brownell, Henry Howard, on Farragut at New Orleans, 

263. 
Buccaneers, The, 75, S7. 
Button, Sir Thomas, in the North, 43. 
Burgess, Edward, 280, 290, 292. 
Byrd, Colonel William, on North Carolina's commerce, 

63- 

CABOT, John, vessel of, 40, in the North, 43, on the 

early fisheries, 204 ; Arctic theory, 228. 
Canoe, Birch-bark, 15; Ojibway construction, 17. 
Cambria, the, loses race of 1870, 279. 
Cape Cod ; — its Norse name, 48. 
Carolina Indians attempt to sail to Europe, 27. 
Carolina Yacht Club, 273. 

Cartier, Jacques, vessel of, 40; in the North, 43. 
Cavendish, Thomas; letter to Queen Elizabeth, 34. 
Church, Captain Thomas, heads expedition against 

Port Royal, 102. 
Clayborne, Captain, in Chesapeake Bay, 91. 
Clemens, S. L., see " Mark Twain." 
Cleopatra's Barge, first American yacht, 272. 
Cleveland, Captain, enterprise of, 149 ; on ocean risks, 

159-161. 
Colonial expeditions by sea: against the French in 

Maine, 92, 93 ; against Acadia, 96 ; against Canada, 

97 ; two against Port Royal, 102 ; against Canada 

again, 103 ; against Louisburg, 107. 
Columbus, Christopher, sees an Indian sailing vessel, 

iS: the discoverer, 30, on early discoverers, 32, 

boats of, 30. 
Constellation, The frigate ; launched, 145 ; captures 

the Insurgente, 148; cripples La Vengeance, 148. 
Constitution, The frigate, 142, launch of, 145, protest 

against her destruction, 146 ; English derision of, 

164; escape from British fleet, 170; fight with the 

Guerriere, 175. 
Conyngham, Gustavus, exploits of, 131. 
Cooper, James Fenimore ; on English right of search 

(note), 158; on American packet ships, 185, 186; on 

the fresh water sailor, 239. 
Cortereal, Gasper, death of, 46. 
Cortez, Hernando; battle with Aztecs, 25 ; his " navy," 

49. 
Coffin, Captain R. F., on ocean race of Henrietta, 

278; on international race of 1870, 279; on sloop 

Puritan, 288. 
Collins, Commander Napoleon, captor of the Florida, 

253- 
Craven, Commander, chivalry of, 269. 
Crowninshield, Major; his yacht Cleopatra's Barge, 272. 



33: 



INDEX. 



333 



Cruisers, Confederate, 253. 

Cumberland, destroyed by the Merrimac, 256. 

Cup, The America's, see Yachting. 

Cushing, Lieutenant William, daring feat of, 260. 

DACRES, Captain, commands Guerriere, 175. 
Dana, Richard Henry; on prestige of long voyages, 

184-5 i h's " Two Years before the Mast," 187 ; on 

flogging, 193 ; on whale ships, 211, 212; on a sailor's 

idea of science, 226 ; sailor's over-strained sense of 

manliness, 302. 
D'Anville, Admiral, fleet for the invasion of New 

England destroyed (poem and note) 108. 
Davis, John, in the North, 43 
Decatur, Stephen, in Tripoli, 154. 
DeSoto, Hernando: battle with Mississippi Indians, 

24, death of, 50; followers of attempt boatbuilding, 

5' 
DeVries, Captain, defies Manhattan authorities, 66. 
Digby, Thomas, early shipbuilder, 53. 
Dolphin, The cruiser, first flies the American flag in an 

ocean victory, 132. 
Drake, Francis, bravery of, 35; vessels of, 40; his 

death, 46; aggression toward Spain, 70; exploit of 

his crew, 91. 
Drake, Samuel A., on French and English hostility, 

91 ; on the expedition against the French Colonists, 

93- 
Dreadnaught, clipper ship, record of, 186. 
Dwight, Timothy, prophecy of, 67. 

EELKENS, Jacob, defies the Manhattan authorities, 
66, 91. 

Elizabeth, Queen, countenances piracy, 70. 

Ellis Geo. E., on Phips (note), 95. 

Ellsworth, Captain Joe, refuses to pilot the Thistle, 
292. 

Embargo, Act, The, 159. 

Empress, Ship, sails to China, 175. 

Endicott, Governor, expedition against the Block 
Island Indians, 92. 

England : In American waters, 34 ; hostility to Spain, 
70; hostility to France, 91, 105; determination to 
possess Canada, 107; obnoxious sea-laws of, 114; 
Revolution against, 116-117, et seq. ; aggressiveness 
toward American seamen, 156, 160; asserts her 
right of search, 158; open hostility, 161; second war 
with, 162 : her bravado toward America, 164. 

FARRAGUT, Admiral David Glasgow: his first 
action, 170; at New Orleans, 263; his character, 
267 ; at Mobile, 26S. 

Fernell, Tobias, loyalty of, 176. 

Fernow, Berthold, on Kidd's "piracy," S4 

Fishermen: America discovered by Basque, 30; his 
occupation 202 ; of contribution to American great- 
ness ; number at the close of the Revolution and at 
later dates, 204 ; character of,' 206, 207 ; interests of, 
221 ; importance of, 222 (see Whale Fishery). 

Fishery Question, see Fishermen. 



Flogging at sea, its abolition, 194. 

Fox, Luke: success! 1. 47. 

For and Ojibway naval encounter, 23. 

France : her hostility to England, 90, 106, 108 ; trouble 
of United States with, 146, 14S; her orders in coun- 
cil, 158. 

Franklin, Sir John, disappearance of, 231 ; search for, 
231, 232, 233, 234- 

Freeman, The pilot, bravery of, 269. 

Frobisher, Martin, in the North, 43; Arctic theory, 
22S. 

GALATEA, The, English yacht, 2S0. 

Gallup, John, fight with Indians, 27. 

Garnet, Captain, death of, 176. 

Gates, Sir Thomas, voyage of, 65. 

Gay, S. H. : on early navigators, 31. 

Genesta.The, English yacht, 2S8. 

George, negro sailor, bravery of. 311. 

Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, courage of, 35, vessel of, 40; 

his death, 47 ; exploit of his crew . , 
Gray, Captain Robert, first carries American (lag 

around the world, 136. 
Green, John Richard: on the war of 1S12, 163; on 

effect of America's naval victories, [64. 
Grenville, Sir Richard, bravery of, 3; ; Kingsley's 

description of (note) 35; his last words (note) 37; 

(note) 40. 
Griffis, William Elliot; on America's fear of British 

sea-supremacy, 163 ; on the slave-trade, 197 ; on 

piracy, 199. 
" Grinnell Expeditions," The, see Arctic discoverv. 
Grinnell, Henry, interest in Arctic discovery, 231,233. 
Guerra, Cristobal ; early American trader, 33. 
Gwin, Lieutenant-Commander, bravery of, 269. 

HALE, Edward Everett, on exploit of New Bedford 

seamen, 112; on the first American war-ships, 113; 

on American privateers in Revolution, 115. 
Hancock, John, a smuggler. 87. 

Harding, Seth, and Samuel Smedley, exploit of, 131. 
Harrisse, H. ; on early navigators, 31. 
Hartley, Sir Charles, on St. Lawrence navigation, 238. 
Hartstene, Lieutenant, see Arctic Discoveries. 
Hawks, Frances L., on vessels of early na 

(note), 40. 
Hawkins, John, bravery of, 35 ; aggression toward 

Spain, 70. 
Hay, John, on Mississippi engineer. 244. 
Henrietta, the, fleet American yacht. 276; wins ocean 

race, 277. 
Hereshoffs. The, yacht- builders, 280. 
Herrera, A. de, on Indian canoes, 18. 
Hewes, Captain, defies Miles Standish, 91. 
Hevwood, Philip D. : on sailors' character, 296; on 

American captains, 299, on sailors' dislike of iron 

ships, 300; on pride of sailors, 301. 
Hiawatha (sec Longfellow). 
Higginson, T. W. : on colonial expedition against 

Louisburg, 107. 
Hoboken Model Yacht Club, 272. 



334 



INDEX. 



Hogan, John, gallantry of, 176. 

Holmes, Oliver Wendell; protest against destruction 

of frigate Constitution, 145 (and note). 
Hopkins, Esek, first American "commodore," 119. 
Hudson, Henry, vessel of, 40; in the North, 43 ; his 

death, 47. 
Hull, Isaac, ability of, 170; escapes from British fleet, 

171-175 ; captures the Guerriere, 17s. 

INDIAN, The American, as a sailor, 21, 26, 28. 
Inland commerce, see Merchant Marine. 
International yacht race, see Yachting. 
Ironclads, origin of, 255. 

Irving, Washington, describes Indian vessel (note), 18: 
on boats of Columbus, 39, 40 ; on early navigators, 46. 

JAFFRAY, EdwardS.; on yachting, 2S4; on steam 
yachting, 2S6 ; on cost of steam yachting, 287. 

James, Reuben, bravery cf, 311. 

Jarvis, Midshipman, fidelity of, 148. 

Jewell, Consul, on American sea captains, 296. 

" Jim Bludso," bravery of, 244. 

Jones, John Paul; his career, 11S ; commands the 
Alfred, 119, the Ranger, 120, captures the Drake, 
120, commands the Bonhomme Richard, 123, fight 
with the Serapis, 124, 127. 

Jones, Mr., on Oglethorpe's defence of the Georgia 
coast, 106. 

KANE, Elisha Kent, see Arctic Discovery. 

Kearsarge, The, destroys the Alabama, 254. 

Kidd, William, his career, 84, 87. 

Kingsley, Charles; on Grenville (note) 35 ; his story of 
"Westward ho ! " 38 ; on early navigators, 45; on 
hostility between England and Spain, 72, 74 ; on 
" the last buccaneer," 79. 

LAFITTE, Jean, the Gulf pirate, 199. 

Lake commerce, see Merchant Marine. 

Lamson, Captain, captures blockade runner Venus, 251. 

LaSalle, Chevalier, on Lake Ontario, 240. 

LaTour and D'Aulnay, Feuds of, 92. 

Lawrence, Captain James, his glorious record, 170. 

Leisler, Governor Jacob, instigator of colonial move- 
ment against Canada, 97 (note), 98. 

Lescarbot, on the early American fisheries, 204. 

Leverett, Captain John, commands expedition against 
French colonists in Maine, 93. 

Lincoln, President, admiration for Longfellow's "Build- 
ing of the Ship," 182. 

Lockwood, Lieutenant, J. B., makes farthest north, 237. 

Lodge, Henry Cabot, on colonial commerce, 61 ; on 
piracy, 82-83 ; on Oglethorpe's defeat of the Span- 
iards, 105. 

Longfellow, H. W. : describes Hiawatha's canoe-build- 
ing, 16; on Sir Humphrey Gilbert's death, 35; on 
destruction of D'Anvillt's fleet, 108; the " Building 
of the Ship," 1S2 ; on destruction of the Cumberland, 
256. 

Lopez, Martin ; builds four brigantines for Cortez, 118 ; 
launches the " first American navy," 49. 



McKENXY, T. L., describes Ojibway canoe con- 
struction, 17. 

McMaster, John B., on colonial commerce, 64; on 
early American commerce, 136; training of American 
sailors, 140; on launch of frigate United States, 142 ; 
on the steadfastness of the fishermen, 180. 

Macdonough, Commodore, victory on Lake Champlaiiv 
170. 

Machias boatmen capture the Margaretta, 112. 

Magellan, Fernando da, vessel of, 40. 

Magic, The, wins race of 1870, 279. 

Mahan, Commander A. T. ; on Walker's bravery, 269. 

Mandans, boats of, 15. 

Manly, John, captures the Nancy, 113, 130. 

" Mark Twain " on Mississippi boatmen, 244. 

Marquette, Father, on northern canoes, 15. 

Marseilles, saved by American sailors, 312. 

Martyr, Peter; on ventures to America, 33; on the 
early fisheries, 204. 

Massey, Gerald, description of Grenville's last sea-fight, 
36, (note) 37. 

Mayflower, The, wins international race of 1886, 289. 

Merchant Marine, American: slow growth of, 135; 
early enterprise of, 136, 149; increase of, 137; 
danger of from English aggression, 158; decrease of 
after war of 1812, 179; rapid development of after 
1837, 181 ; as a school for training seamen, 190 ; 
demands of, 195 ; inland statistics, 238 ; importance 
of inland, 240 ; on western rivers, 243 ; decline of, 
295, 300. 

Merrimac, The, rebel ram, 256. 

Merry, Master Walter, builds " first American war- 
vessel," 58. 

Minuet, Herr Director, assists boatbuilders, 58. 

Mississippi boatmen, see American Sailor. 

Monitor, The, 256. 

Morgan, Sir Henry, the greatest of the buccaneers, 76. 

Mugford, Captain, daring of, 130-13 1. 

NAPOLEON (Emperor) puts a stop to French aggres- 
sion. 

Narragansett Indians, see Oldham, 

Narvaez, Panhlo de ; his death, 46; his shipwreck and 
boatbuilding, 49, 50 

Navy, Confederate, character of at outbreak of the 
War for the Union, 249; English help to, 250; 
originates idea of iron clads, 255. 

Navy, United States, Beginmngsof, 113 ; in the Revo- 
lution, 115, 116; its first "commodore," 119; in 
Algerine troubles, i4r, 152, 155; formation of. 141; 
first secretary appointed, 142 ; increased, 147; opens 
war with England, 169; efficiency of in war of 
1812, 169, 178; in peace, 198; its exploits, 199; in 
the Mexican war, 200; condition of at outbreak of 
the War for the Union, 247; in 1S63 and 1S65, 248; 
duties of, 249 ; prize work of, 251 ; peaceful victory 
at Marseilles, 312 ; recent increase in, 313. 

Neptune Yacht Club, 273. 

New Bedford seamen capture a British prize, 112. 

New York Yacht Club, 272. 

Nicuesa, Diego de, raft of, 48. 



IXDEX. 



335 



Nieuw Netherlands, The, built, 58. 

Nino, Pedro, early American trader, 33. 

Non-intercourse Act, The, 159. 

Nordhoff, Charles : on efficiency of the American sailor 
of 1S40, 182 ; his feeling of superiority, 183 ; his 
manliness, 1S8; the merchant service as a school for 
training, 190 ; the sailor's kindness of heart, 194 ; on 
American marine, 296, 299; on sailors' sense of im- 
portance, 301 ; on good will on ship-board, 303 ; on 
"chummy-ship," 303; on "yarns," 307. 

Nourse, Professor J. E. ; on the purpose of Arctic 
discovery, 232 ; on its fascinations, 237. 

OGLETHORPE, Governor James Edward, leads 
expedition against St. Augustine, 104; attacks the 
Spanish fleet off Cumberland Island, 105. 

Olano, Lope de, caravel of, 48. 

Oldham, Captain John ; encounter with Narragansetts, 
27 ; his audacity, 64, 91. 

Ordronaux, Captain, the privateer, 177. 

Osborn, Admiral ; on disinterestedness of American 
sailors in Franklin Relief Expedition, 231. 

PALESTINE, ship, record of, 186. 

Partridge, The (see Boatbuilder). 

Pearson, Captain, commands the Sarapis, 225, 127. 

Pennsylvania flotilla drive away English war-ships, 112. 

Pepperell, Sir William, commands expedition against 
Louisburg, 107. 

Perry, Matthew C. ; on declaration of war with Eng- 
land, 162 ; his reform of the navy, 201 ; on the "grog 
ration," 307. 

Perry, Oliver Hazard, victory on Lake Erie, 170; de- 
termination of, 311. 

Peters, Master, builds large ship at Salem, 54. 

Paine, Charles J., 280, 292. 

Phips, Sir William, finds Spanish wreck, 67, 95; 
career of, 94 ; commands colonial expedition against 
Acadia, 96; commands expedition against Canada, 
97- 

Picaroons, The, 199. 

Piracy, 34, 69, 79, 81, 83, 85, 87. 

Plymouth colony's boatbuilding, 57. 

Postel ; on the early fisheries, 204 

Popham, Sir John, his colonists, 52. 

Porter, Captain ; splendid defense of the Essex, 171. 

Preble, Commodore, in Tripoli, 154, 155. 

Prescott, W. H. ; account of Cortez' battle with Aztecs, 

25- 

Privateers, American, in Revolution, 114, 117; in 1812, 

'77- 
Puritan, Sloop, wins international race of 18S5, 288. 

READ, Oliver, exploit of, 131. 

Reid, Captain Samuel, his daring as a privateer, 177. 

Ribault's colonists attempt boatbuilding, 52. 

Ricketts, Recklessness of, 6S. 

Ripley, John, Devotion of, 165. 

Rodgers, Commodore, humbles Tripoli, 153 ; punishes 
a British cruiser, 162 ; takes navy to sea for war with 
England, 162 ; tires first shot of the war, 169. 



Roosevelt, Theodore L. ; on the early American sea- 
man, 139; perils of seamen, 140 ; on England's ocean 

supremacy, 157 ; on English right of search, 158 ; on 
the independence of the American sailor, 161 ; on 
composition of American crews in 1812, 165 ; loyalty 
of American sailor in 1812, 166; on ability of the 
sailors, 169; on fighting-stuff of the American sailor, 
176. 

Sailor, The American : oldest of navigators, 11; in 
colonial days, 64; as colonial fighter, 91, 97, 107 ; in 
the Revolution, 113, 213; in the early merchant 
marine, 137, 139; intelligence of, 138; in trouble 
with France, 147; in Algerian troubles, 152, 155; 
under English tyranny, 160; in 1812, 165-178, of 
1840, 186 et seq. ; his knowledge of his rights, 
1819; as a fisherman, 222-223; n ' s interest in 
modern research, 225 ; his contribution to the suc- 
cesses of American research, 22S: as an Arctic ex- 
plorer, 22S-237; on inland waters, 238, 240; on 
western rivers, 243 ; bravery of as river pilot and en- 
gineer, 244, 245; in War for the Union, 248-270; 
as a blockade-runner, and blockade watcher, 252 ; as 
a professional yachtsman, 284; decline of, 294, 301; 
nationality of, 295 ; ill-treatment of, 299 ; pride, 301 ; 
good-will, 302 ; comradeship, 302 ; over-strained sense 
of manliness, 302-3 ; friendships, 303 ; songs of, 304; 
obedience of, 304; story-telling, 307; drunkenness, 
307; superstition, 30S ; bravery of, 311, 312 ; record 
of, 3M- 

Sea Songs, see "shanty" songs. 

Sedgwick, Major Robert, commands expedition against 
French in Maine, 93. 

Semmes, Raphael, captain of the Alabama, 254, 255, 
268. 

Shakespeare's play of " The Tempest," 65. 

" Shanty," songs, 304. 

Shaw, on the buccaneers, 75. 

Shenandoah, 254. 

Ship building, in the "palmy days," 195; Whittier's 
tribute to, 196. 

Silsbee, Captain Nathaniel, determination of, 312. 

Skinner, Charles M , on ill-treatment of seamen 

Slave trade, The, 197. 

Smiles, Samuel ; on sailors, in. 

Smith, Charles C. ; on D'Anville's invasion (note), 108. 

Smith, Michael, devotion of, 176. 

Smuggling, 85, 87. 

Soley, Professor J. R. ; on naval office's in War for 
tin- Union, 248; naval facilities of Confederacy, 249; 
on Confederate cruisers, 253 ; on Cushing's bravery, 
261. 

Songs, see " shanty," songs. 

Sojitback, Captain Cyprian, Boston's wrath against, 
102 ; leads the van up the St. Lawrence, 103. 

Southcombe, Captain, the privateer, 177. 

Southern Yacht Club, 273. 

Spain; 111 American waters, 33; responsible for piracy, 
70 ; fleet defeated by ( Jovernor Oglethorpe, 105. 

Spruce, Midshipman, pluck of, 154. 

Steam yachts, see Yachting. 

1 lenry, celebrated boat-builder, 277, 280. 



336 



INDEX. 



Sterrett, Captain, captures Tripolitan corsair, 153 
Stevens, " Commodore," 273, 275. 
Stoddart, Benjamin, first Secretary of the Navy, 142. 
Stukely, Sir Thomas ; his letter to Queen Elizabeth, 

44- 
Swaine, Captain, first American Arctic explorer, 237. 

THLINKET legends of Indian shipwreck, 21. 

Thistle, The, Scotch yacht, 290. 

Thompson, Seaman, bravery of, 177. 

Thorvald the Viking, battle with Indians, 38 ; his 

death, 45. 
Truxtun, Commodore, popularity of, 148. 
Tyng, Captain Edward, commands fleet in Colonial 

expedition against Louisburg, 107. 
Tonnage, American, in 1780, 137; in 1797, 137 \ ' n 

1807, 137; in 1837, 179; in 1847, 1S0; in 1857, J 8o; 

in 1861, 180; in 1887, 294. 
Tooker, William, boat-builder, 2S0. 
Trent, The affair of the, 253. 

UNITED States, The frigate, launch of, 142. 

VACA, Cabeza de, account of Narvaez expedition, 49. 

Verrazano, Giovanni, his death, 46. 

Vespucci, Amerigo, as a discoverer, 31. 

Volunteer, The, wins international race of 1887, 291. 

WACHUSETT, The, captures the Florida, 253. 

Wadsworth, Henry, death of, 154. 

Walker, Admiral Sir Hovenden, commands expedition 

against Canada, 103. 
Walker, Captain Henry, daring of, 269. 



Washington, George, inaugurates offensive action at 
sea, 113; wisdom in French troubles, 147. 

Waymouth, George, in the North, 43. 

Wells, David A., on smuggling, 86. 

Weymouth, early acccount of whale fishery, 212. 

Whale Fishery: Nature of, 208 ; statistics of in 1854, 
212 ; early methods, 212 ; danger of, 214 ; anecdotes, 
215-218; importance of in American history, 221. 

Whipple, Captain Abraham, takes out first American 
cruiser, 112, (note) 112; success of, 132. 

Whitfield, Rev. George, gives motto to Colonial Ar- 
mada against Louisburg, 107. 

Whitten, on the " Palatine," 309. 

Whittier, John G., on Thorvald, 38; on the ship 
builder's craft, 195; on Floyd Ireson, 207 ; on fisher- 
men, 223. 

Wickes, Lambert, daring of, 131. 

William, King, on piracy, 82. 

Willis, N. P, ; on American packet ships, 186. 

Winthrop, Governor, on early boat-building, 59. 

Wilkes, Captain Charles, captures Rebel Commission- 
ers, 253. 

Winslow, Captain John A., destroys the Alabama, 254. 

Worden, Captain, of the Monitor, 256. 

Yachting; an American ambition, 271 ; early Ameri- 
can clubs, 272; first regatta, 273; victory of the 
America, 274 ; America's Cup, 275, 278, 279, 287, 288, 
291 ; International races* (1870), 269 (1885), 288 
(1S86), 289 (1887), 290; increase of clubs, 279; growth 
of, 283; as a "feeder" to the navy, 283, 284; 
steam yachts, 284-287 ; as a school of patriotism, 292. 

Young, Captain Thomas, defies the rebel cruiser 
Shenandoah, 254. 



Uniform with the " Story of tin- American San or." 



THE STORY OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN. 

HIS ORIGIN, DEVELOPMENT, DECLINE AND DESTINY. 
By Elbridge s. Brooks. 

One volume, 8vo, cloth, fully illustrated, $2.50. 

This volume is precisely what its title implies : the Story of the American Indian. It has 
no pet theory to advocate ; it offers no solution to the so-called Indian problem. It is simply 
an attempt to gather and place in something like consecutive order the facts of the Indian's 
rise, progress, decline and present condition. It tells, in simple, earnest, dispassionate lan- 
guage, his history. 

There was need for just such a book. "The Indian," says the critic of the Brooklyn 
Times, "from the time of Cooper to that of Helen Hunt Jackson has suffered, both in and out 
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myths and tales and authentic accounts, sifts them, weighs and sets them in a narrative strong 
and connected and puts a book to be read in the place of a score to gather dust in the libraries. 

The Story of the American Indian has received the highest praise from readers and 
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" It would have to be a subject very dull in itself," says the A'cio York Observer, " that 
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" While elevated in purpose and treatment," says the Boston Globe," 'it is no less enter- 
taining to general readers, being clearly and concisely written." 

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history from the prehistoric period down to the present day. It is calm, impartial, dignified 
and full of information. No person, young or old, can rise from its perusal without having an 
intelligent apprehension of this great and difficult theme." 



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